Duke art history professor may have experienced medical event before fatal car crash, police report reads

Hans Joris Van Miegroet, professor of art and art history at Duke, may have experienced a medical event before he died in a car crash earlier this month, according to police records obtained by The Chronicle.

“The crash is consistent with someone having a medical event prior to [the] crash. The Medical Examiner's Office is investigating the cause of death,” the Durham Police Department wrote in the report.

Van Miegroet, 71, died in a car accident while driving on North Carolina Highway 751 near Duke University Drive on Feb. 9. Around 6:30 p.m., he veered off the road and crashed into a “very small tree,” according to the record. 

Joe Arreguin, a master’s student at the Fuqua School of Business, was driving behind Van Miegroet and witnessed the scene. Arreguin told the police that he saw Van Miegroet’s car moving at a “very slow rate of speed” over an embankment and later noticed smoke coming from the vehicle. Arreguin went to check on Van Miegroet and found him “unresponsive and not moving.”

Arreguin soon noticed “massive flames” coming from the vehicle. The Durham Fire Department responded to the scene and determined that the vehicle had collected dry pine needles, which then caught fire from the car’s hot exhaust and engine. 

The police report concluded that “an initial investigation did not show any signs that the collision itself would have likely caused any significant injury or death to the driver.” 

Durham County EMS also responded to the scene and pronounced Van Miegroet dead upon arrival.