Elon woman dies in Tuesday wreck on interstate

Traveling back to college Tuesday night, an Alamance County woman was killed in a car wreck on Interstate 85 a week before her 22nd birthday.

Taylor M. Chafatelli, 21, of Elon, was pronounced dead on the scene of the collision, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. on southbound I-85 near Thomasville at exit 103.

Sgt. Robert Abernathy of the N.C. Highway Patrol said Chafatelli was driving back to Catawba College in Salisbury.

Chafatelli, driving a 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt, was traveling in the far left lane and passing a tractor-trailer in a middle lane when, “for some reason, she drifted over into his lane of travel,” Abernathy said, and the front and back right quarter panels of her car struck the truck’s front left wheel.

The driver of the truck, Miguel Ramirez, 46, of Charlotte, wasn’t injured.

Chafatelli’s Cobalt spun sideways in front of Ramirez, crossing the middle lane and traveling toward the right lane, when it went underneath the trailer, spun out again and went off the road before striking a guard rail three times.

Chafatelli was ejected from the vehicle on the third collision with the rail.

Investigators say she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

“We don’t know if she took it off momentarily and was reaching for something and drifted over,” Abernathy said. “We’re investigating that. We might not ever know.”

Abernathy said the Cobalt was traveling an estimated 75 mph at the time of the crash.

No charges are being filed against Ramirez.

In a statement released by Catawba College, the school reported that Chafatelli was a junior communication arts major. The College flag was being lowered to half-staff in her memory.