Alamance-Burlington school system officials announced Tuesday that an ABSS employee, Emma Rowland, was killed Tuesday morning in a car wreck.
Rowland, 20, had been employed at Eastlawn Elementary School as an instructional assistant for kindergarteners and second graders, according to ABSS. She was reportedly on her way to work early Tuesday morning when another vehicle crashed into hers.
A graduate of the Alamance-Burlington Early College who had worked for ABSS since April 2021, Rowland was described by her principal at Eastlawn as a “team player who was always positive and student-centered,” ABSS officials said in a subsequent news release.
Multiple media outlets have reported that the wreck occurred at the intersection of Lindley Mill Road with Moores Chapel Cemetery Road, just south of Graham.
The investigating trooper for the State Highway Patrol’s Troop D, whose territory includes Alamance County, confirmed the circumstances surrounding the collision in a phone interview with The Alamance News Wednesday afternoon.
The investigating trooper said that Alex Michael Millager of Siler City was driving a
2021 Ford F-550 truck east on Moores Chapel Cemetery Road, when he ran a stop sign, crashing into the 2004 Toyota Corolla driven by Rowland at 7:22 a.m. Tuesday.
“Mr. Millager was traveling east on Moores Chapel Cemetery Road,” the investigating trooper told the newspaper Wednesday. “He stated that he was blinded by sunlight [and] ran through that intersection to collide with Ms. Rowland’s vehicle. She was traveling north on Lindley Mill [Road]. She died on impact, and both vehicles were forced off the roadway due to the collision.”
The investigating trooper also confirmed for the newspaper that neither speed nor alcohol was believed to have contributed to the accident.
Meanwhile, Millager, the alleged driver of the vehicle that struck Rowland, has been charged with misdemeanor death by a vehicle and failure to stop at a stop sign, according to information on file with the Alamance County criminal courts system. Millager is currently scheduled to appear in Alamance County district court on May 25.
