News

Driver, 22, dies in parkway crash

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 8, 2022

BLOWING ROCK — A 22-year-old motorist died before sunrise Thursday when his car ran off the Blue Ridge Parkway and crashed into a tree, the National Park Service said.

Blue Ridge Parkway dispatchers received a report at 5:30 a.m. of a motor vehicle collision near milepost 290 on the parkway.  Rangers and local rescue crews arrived on scene to find a single occupant, Jonathan Gabriel Reyes Medrano, of Mexico, had died as a result of the collision.  It appeared Medrano was driving southbound on the Blue Ridge Parkway when he failed to negotiate a left-hand curve causing the vehicle to leave the roadway and collide with a tree.