RALEIGH, NC - St. Augustine's University honor student Matthew Mangram travel to his hometown in southeast Georgia to visit his ailing grandmother this past Sunday.
Mangram, who is junior criminal justice major and starting offensive lineman on the school's football team, was about five minutes from home in Darien, Ga., when his crossed the center line and slammed head-on into a Ford Explorer just before 7:45 a.m. Monday.
Mangram was pronounced dead at the scene, said Sgt. Robert Balkcom, a trooper with the Georgia State Highway Patrol.
Balkcom states Mangram's Nissan was traveling when he pulled into the northbound lanes to pass another vehicle in front of him.
Two people in the other vehicle, Becky Davis and her daughter Lauren, was seriously injured. They were taken to Southern Georgia Health System in nearby Brunswick and then transferred to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Balkcom said.
St. Augustine's athletics director George Williams described Mangram as a young man who excelled both on and off the football field.
"It is always hard and difficult to lose a family member," Williams said in a statement. "But to lose a young man in the prime of his life like Matthew, who was an honor student and stater on the football team, is almost unspeakable."
St. Aug's held a memorial service for Mangram on Monday afternoon in the campus chapel.
The HBCU Campaign would like to extend our heart and condolences to the family and friends of Matthew Mangram of St. Augustine's University during this difficult time.