On the day of the accident, Nancy Hughes (victim) reported to work at the Watson Trucking office at her normal starting time of 7:00 a.m. to receive work assignments.  She was instructed to go the Neverson Quarry to get rip-rap stone and haul it to a construction site near the mine.  She had made several runs during the day without incident and was leaving the mine with another load when the accident occurred.

At 1:34 p.m. Hughes drove to the scales, was weighed, and then pulled off the scales and proceeded to the crossing, which was approximately 185 feet away.  As she was crossing the tracks, she was struck by the train.  The train's warning horn blasts were heard by employees from various areas of the mine prior to the accident.  Several witnesses to the accident stated that Hughes slowed down as she approached the tracks but did not appear to make any attempt to stop for the train.

The locomotive struck Hughes' truck on the driver's side of the operator's cab.  The cab was severed from the truck's frame by the collision, resulting in Hughes either falling out of, or being thrown from the cab, approximately 180 feet from the point of impact.  The cab came to rest approximately 198 feet from the point of impact.  It could not be determined whether Hughes was wearing a seat belt when the accident occurred.

Monty Malldin, customer driver, was at the scale house when the accident occurred.  He yelled to the scale house personnel to call for help and then ran to Hughes who was laying face down in a ditch to the south side of the tracks.  Malldin rolled Hughes over and detected a pulse and noted that her breathing was labored.  When the emergency medical technicians arrived about ten minutes later, she did not have a pulse.

Hughes sustained multiple traumatic injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner for Wilson County, North Carolina.  The body was taken to Wilson County Hospital.