Five-year-old and father killed in tragic crash after driver veered into wrong lane and slammed golf cart

A father and his young son were tragically killed in North Carolina after their golf cart was struck by a suspected impaired driver, authorities said.

The Associated Press reported that on Monday night, the driver of a Honda Accord was travelling along the North Carolina State Highway near Statesville, located 40 miles north of Charlotte, and began crossing the median until he eventually veered into oncoming traffic, causing the fatal collision with the golf cart carrying six passengers, many of whom were related.

Michael Shane Marlowe, 39, the driver of the golf cart, and his 5-year-old son, Bentley Marlowe, were declared dead at the scene of the collision, while the four other passengers, who were between the ages of 2 and 26 years old, were all transported to hospital to be treated for injuries, according to North Carolina state troopers.

The mother, Amy Marlowe, 26, was among the passengers in the golf cart requiring medical treatment and as of Tuesday night, she and the three surviving passengers, who were 2, 13 and 16 years old, remained in hospital.

The driver of the Honda Accord, Austin Ray Harmon, 23, was charged by local authorities with driving while impaired, two counts of felony death by vehicle and three counts of serious injury by vehicle.

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The 23-year-old is being held at the Iredell County Detention Facility with a bond set at $250,000, according to county jail records.

“Impaired driving is dangerous for not only the driver but also everyone else on the highway,” said Jeffrey Swagger, a trooper with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, in an interview with WBTV. “Golf carts are a popular pastime for folks to get out and enjoy their neighbourhoods and community, but they can be dangerous when golf carts and cars occupy the same space, that can be dangerous for the occupants of the golf carts for sure”

Community members filled the church where the family frequented on Tuesday in a vigil to commemorate the father and son killed in Monday night’s car crash and to pray for the other passengers who were still recovering from their injuries in hospital.

“This morning is appropriately gray and rainy. It’s as if nature knows how we are feeling right now,” wrote the pastor, Jeremy Cannada, of the First Presbyterian Church of Statesville in a Facebook post the morning after the fatal crash. Bentley, he noted, had recently graduated from the church’s preschool.

“I cannot begin to explain this and I can’t try. I won’t,” he added. Later, he wrote in a separate post about the Tuesday night vigil, a prayer service he felt was needed after “several members” reached expressing “how close the tragedy for the Marlowe family has affected them”.

A GoFundMe established by a close friend of the family described how the community was “devastated” by the Monday night deadly crash and wanted to fundraise money to help support the individuals who still remained in hospital, with all proceeds going towards “medical bills, services expenses, and anything else the family might need in this time”.