Shortly after midnight Monday, a single-vehicle accident resulted in the death of a Pearl River Community College student.
At 12:05 a.m., the Poplarville Police Department was notified of an accident at 310 Highway 26 East via the vehicle’s emergency notification software, Chief Butch Raby said.
Officers arrived to find the driver, later identified as Joseph B. Broom, 19, of Columbia, ejected from the vehicle, Raby said.
Initial investigation into the cause of the accident determined the vehicle left the roadway, struck a culvert and flipped several times before coming to a stop, Raby said.
Though speed is believed to be a factor, drug or alcohol use is not suspected, he said.
A representative from the Pearl River County Coroner’s Office was called and pronounced Broom deceased on-scene, Raby said.
PRCC issued a statement though its Facebook page stating, “The Pearl River Community College family extends its thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Joseph Blake Broom, who was killed in an overnight traffic accident on Highway 26 inside the city limits of Poplarville. He was a freshman student from Columbia.”