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GATES – A single vehicle accident near here Friday night (May 10) claimed the life of a local man.

Marlos Tyron Downing, 47, of Gates was killed on Medical Center Road, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

NCHP Trooper C.E. Chamblee noted in his report that the accident occurred at around 9:10 p.m., less than one-half mile south of Willeyton Road.

Downing was operating a 2000 Honda passenger car traveling north on Medical Center Road. Based on his investigation of the accident scene, Trooper Chamblee noted that the vehicle went left of the centerline, causing the driver to overcorrect. The vehicle then traveled off the right side of the road where it collided with a tree and a mailbox before it overturned, which ejected the driver.

The car came to rest on its roof in the roadway.

Downing died at the scene, according to the accident report.

The fatality was the ninth of the year within the NCHP’s Troop A / District II area (Bertie, Gates, Hertford counties). Three of those fatalities have occurred in Gates County.