Amazon driver killed in crash that closed northbound I-85 in Durham County

An Amazon Prime delivery driver was killed in a crash on Interstate 85 north of Durham on Wednesday morning.

The State Highway Patrol said Thursday that a truck was stopped in the right lane, waiting to merge when Joshua Clark, 21, of Scotland Neck, driving the Amazon van, ran into it.

Clark died at the scene. The driver of the truck, Raymond Davis, 66, of Roanoke Rapids, was not hurt.

"It’s so heartbreaking because, at Amazon delivery, we’re still all one family. So just to hear this is very tragic," dispatcher Chantel O’Neal said.

The crash occurred after 11 a.m. on northbound I-85, shutting the highway down for hours at Redwood Road (Exit 183).

Tyler Presley, who was caught in the miles-long backup, said it appeared the Amazon van hit the back of a tractor-trailer.

"The entire front of the vehicle looked gone," Presley said. "It all looked like scrap metal."

The right lane of northbound I-85 reopened shortly before 3 p.m.

"Even when I was, like, driving back home, it got even longer," Presley said of the backup. "You see tons of cars trying to take exits beforehand, trying to find another way."

O'Neal said Clark had just started his route when the crash occurred.

"You know I think about my drivers," she said. "I was willing to call every driver that I have on the road to make sure that they were OK."