Highway Patrol speaks on medical emergencies behind the wheel: 'Extremely dangerous'

It's been more than a week since a deadly two-vehicle car wreck in south Asheville that resulted in the death of an elderly driver. On Wednesday, June 3, the Asheville Police announced that 81-year-old Peter Tracy Gillette – the driver who was killed – suffered a medical emergency before the crash. In the aftermath, a trooper with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol talked about how the agency handles these types of wrecks. POLICE: NO CHARGES FILED IN SOUTH ASHEVILLE CRASH THAT KILLED DRIVER While state troopers didn’t respond to the fatal crash along Hendersonville Road in late May, Capt. Josh Dowdle says it is something they see regularly. "If someone has a medical emergency and they become unconscious or incapacitated and the vehicle is still rolling down the road, it's extremely dangerous. You don't have control of your vehicle," Dowdle said. When these types of crashes happen, the onset of symptoms can take mere seconds. "Sometimes, you’ll have people who maybe have gone into some type of diabetic situation, of course seizures, heart issues; a lot of times it's older folks,” Dowdle said, adding that troopers are also trained to help save lives in the aftermath. "We're all trained in CPR. Every trooper has... an automatic defibrillator in their vehicle, and we're all trained in basic CPR." MORE LOCAL NEWS If the emergency leads to an accident on the road, Dowdle said a driver's license can be suspended, and a trooper must submit a driver re-examination form to the DMV. Then that form gets sent to a DMV review board. "If they deem it necessary, then they will submit that person to have to be reexamined by a physician to determine if they're safe to operate a vehicle," Dowdle explained. If you have a loved one with a condition that could cause an emergency on the road, Dowdle said you should address it with them, because it could save someone's life. "I think it's important that we keep up with our family members, have those conversations and just we're protecting not only our family members but other people."