Nine people perished in wrecks and crashes across Arkansas this past week, including a Fort Smith woman who died on Friday near at the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 71 and Broken Hill drive in Fort Smith.
That sets the statewide death tolls at 239 f0r the year compared to 267 for the same time period a year ago.
Police report that just after 11 a.m. Janet Kessler, 62, was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze east on Brooken Hill and was struck by a 2006 Toyota Tacoma that entered the intersection on a red light. Kessler’s vehicle pulled into the path of the oncoming Toyota and was hit on the driver’s side.
The Cruze them rotated in the roadway and hit a traffic standard before striking a 2015 Hyundai Sonota that was stopped in the northbound turning lane of US 71.
Kessler was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital.
The names of the other two drivers have not been released.
A Golden, Missouri woman died on Friday as the result of a single vehicle accident on Friday on S Highway 62 at the Kings River Bridge in Carrol County.
Police officials say Jessica Marie Koory, 2, was westbound on the highway in a 2002 Chevrolet Trailbazer when she lost control while navigating a right curve, went into a ditch and overturned.
Koory was ejected from the SUV and pronounced dead at the scene.
A Craighead County man and a southeast Missouri man were killed Wednesday in a two-vehicle crash in Baxter County.
Phillip Earl Woods, 64, of Jonesboro and Jimmy Dewayne Lowe, 65, of Kennett were both traveling on U.S. 62 in Henderson around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when the crash happened.
Woods, who was driving a 2005 Buick LeSabre, was going east while Lowe, who was driving a 2006 Dodge Caravan, was going west. According to the report, the LeSabre crossed into the westbound lane and hit the Caravan head-on.
An unnamed juvenile, who was in the vehicle with Woods, was also injured in the wreck. The juvenile was taken to a hospital in Springfield, Mo., ASP said.
A Perryville man died in a single vehicle accident on a Little Rock interstate Tuesday.
The ASP preliminary accident report identified the victim as Steven Randall Pruitt, 49.
The report states that Pruitt was driving a 2006 Honda headed east on I-630 near John Barrow Road around 6:15 a.m. Tuesday when the vehicle drifted to the right and sideswiped the east end of a guard rail.
The vehicle then went off the road and traveled about 130 feet before it collided with several trees before rolling over onto its right side.
Jonesboro police spokesman Paul Holmes reported 57-year-old Jackie Becker of Jonesboro was killed when the semi he was driving apparently went off the interstate and crashed into a bridge abutment on Tuesday
Structural engineers spent the afternoon assessing damage to the State Highway 1-B overpass on Interstate 555 at Harrisburg Road in Craighead County on Tuesday, according to Arkansas State Highway and Transportation officials.
AHTD officials said the damage to the overpass was “vast” and the structure will remain closed indefinitely. The repair process will take several months.
A Texarkana man died Tuesday from injuries sustained on Sunday after falling off the trunk of a vehicle.
Jermaine Holmes, 26, passed away at Christus-St. Michael Medical Center.
According to a report by Cpl. Les Munn of the Texarkana, AR, Police Department, officers were dispatched at 12:32 p.m. Sunday to 1525 E. 48th St. regarding a medical emergency.
An investigation discovered that Holmes had jumped onto the trunk of a vehicle driven by Darriena Gaines. She stopped the car, causing Holmes to fall onto the pavement. He sustained a significant head injury.
A Magnolia woman was one of two people killed Tuesday afternoon in a collision involving three vehicles on U.S. 82 in Miller County.
According to a preliminary Arkansas State Police report, Tracye Bailey, 54, of Magnolia was driving a 2006 model Hyundai west on U.S. 82.
The report said Bailey’s car crossed the center line and sideswiped an eastbound 2009 Honda, and then struck a second eastbound vehicle – a 2013 Chevrolet — head-on.
Bailey and the driver of the Chevrolet, Joanna Marie Bruce, 49, of Maud, TX, both died at the scene.
The accident was reported at 2:27 p.m. at the 16.4-mile marker near Texarkana.
A 65-year-old man died after the tractor-trailer he was driving veered off an Arkansas highway and hit the flatbed trailer of a stopped 18-wheeler, state police said.
The two-vehicle wreck happened around 7:20 p.m. Monday as Vernon L. Short of Little Rock was driving north on U.S. 67 in White County.
Police say Short’s tractor-trailer at one point left the highway and struck another 18-wheeler parked on a northbound shoulder.
