Wilkes Man Critically Hurt in Elledge Mill Road Wreck

A preliminary report indicates speed is to blame for the wreck that caused critical injuries to a Wilkes man overnight. The highway patrol says 21-year old Larry Wayne Koenig was driving at a high rate of speed on Elledge Mill Road about midnight, when he lost control. The trooper says Koenig went off the right side of the road, over-corrected and slid off the left side of the road, and hit a fence, which started the vehicle into a roll. He flipped into a mailbox and landed against a tree, upside down. Rescue workers had to extricate him from the car before he could be rushed to Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Because the report is not complete, officials are not saying what factors other than speed played into the wreck.