NEED TO KNOW
- A North Carolina rising high school senior died in a tragic accident while driving to work on Aug. 14
- Gary Landyn Jacobs, who goes by his middle name, crashed his car into a tree while heading to his family’s logging business at 4 a.m.
- Jacos was remembered by an uncle as “a go-getter and a clown on the baseball field that made everybody laugh”
A teenage boy in North Carolina died after crashing his car into a tree while on the way to work in the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 14.
High school student Gary Landyn Jacobs, 17, was headed to a job for his family’s logging business around 4 a.m. when his car hit a tree on Canal Cove Road in Lake Waccamaw, according to WECT.
The logging crew was reportedly working in the nearby Green Swamp Preserve, according to Columbus County News.
A cause for the crash has not yet been revealed. PEOPLE contacted the Lake Waccamaw Police Department for comment.
“What he was going to do that morning… he wanted to be in the logging woods, he was going to work,” his uncle Josh Simmons told WECT of his nephew, who went by his middle name.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, anybody who knows Landyn knew he was going to be running a crew in the logging woods with his brother and daddy,” he added.
Jacobs, a student at East Columbus High School, was treated by emergency responders at the scene of the crash. However, he died from his injuries, WECT reported.
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“Gator family and community please keep the Jacobs family and our school in your thoughts as we have lost our beloved Landyn Jacobs. Always remember we are better together!,” East Columbus High School wrote on Facebook.
Speaking about his nephew, Simmons told WECT that Jacobs was a “a go-getter and a clown on the baseball field that made everybody laugh.”
“He was a gem at second base. Just recently in high school, he won the MVP of our eastern tournament,” he continued. “He enjoyed riding four-wheelers. They put snorkels on their four-wheelers, and they go into ponds with them, and they loved it.”
“We are all about family, and if one of us hurts, then all of us hurt. We got each other back, and we are going to be there for each other, his Momma and Daddy, and Aunt,” Simmons continued.
Jacobs is survived by his parents, sister, brothers and extended family members, according to an online obituary.
Read the full article here
