A fatal car accident on Pungo Creek Road early Tuesday morning claimed the life of a Beaufort County man.

Pinetown resident Matthew Howard Miller, 30, was driving west toward U.S. Highway 264 when his 2005 Ford Mustang veered off the road, hit a tree and flipped.

According to the N.C. State Highway Patrol, Miller may have been driving more than 100 mph when he lost control of the car.

At 1:54 a.m. Tuesday, a call reporting the accident came into Beaufort County’s 911 call center. The Pantego Volunteer Fire Department, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Highway Patrol troopers responded to the scene at the 1500 block of Pungo Creek Road. Miller was pronounced dead at the scene.

Miller had worked aboard Pamlico River ferries on

the Bayview-Aurora run for more than a year at the time of the accident.

“We’re all in shock here,” said Sherry Hollowell with the Ferry Division office at Bayview. “He was liked by all the crew here.”

Hollowell described Miller as an outgoing young man who loved the water and who talked about making a career with the N.C. Department of Transportation’s ferry system, working his way up from an able-bodied seaman to captain one day. On his days off, he worked at Georgie’s Sports and Oyster Bar in Belhaven.

“We’re just sick about it,” said Georgie Baker, owner of the restaurant where Miller had worked for four of the five years Georgie’s has been open.

“(Miller) was a good kid. He was just full of personality. He was customer favorite  — they loved him. He was really highly thought of because he knew how to treat people,” said Baker.

The accident remains under investigation by the Highway Patrol, though it is believed that speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.