Fontana Dam – Speed is believed to be the contributing factor to a recreational vehicle crashing April 26, just before the border of Graham/Swain counties on N.C. 28 North.
Around 6:34 p.m., a 2007 Ford RV operated by 68-year-old Ronnie Edward Grubke of Conneaut, Okla., was navigating a series of curves when the vehicle’s right-side tires dropped off the roadway. Grubke attempted to steady the vehicle, but overcorrected and crashed into a rock-covered embankment before the right-hand turn into the Fontana Dam campground/wastewater treatment plant access road.
Grubke and his wife Sharon were transported to Mission Hospital in Asheville, while another set of passengers – Mark Potter and Barbara Wisniweski, also of Conneaut – were taken to Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva.
N.C. Highway Patrol public information officer Rohn Silvers confirmed to The Graham Star on Monday that Ronnie Grubke later passed away from injuries sustained in the crash. Sharon Grubke, Potter and Wisniweski have since been treated and individually released from the two medical facilities.