Police Officer Charles Johnson killed after his cruiser crashes into a NCDOT excavator truck on North Carolina 111 near Tarboro, North Carolina

The North Carolina Department of Transportation said Tuesday that one of its excavator trucks was in an accident in Edgecombe County that left a police officer dead. It happened around 9 a.m. on N.C. 111, shortly after the truck left a NCDOT maintenance yard on McKendree Church Rd just outside Tarboro. Tarboro Police Chief Damon Williams identified the dead man as Officer Charles Johnson. The driver of the truck was not hurt. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the driver who died in this tragic accident and with our employee who was involved," said NCDOT Secretary Tony Tata in a statement. "Our team will work closely with law enforcement to investigate and thoroughly review all of our safety procedures to understand how this happened and what steps we can take to prevent something like this from happening again." The North Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating.