State accidents during weekend kill 3 motorists
At least three people died in separate road crashes over the weekend.
A Memphis woman died after the vehicle she was driving went off a highway in Arkansas and struck trees, state police said.
The single-vehicle crash happened shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday as 25-year-old Aroneshia Sherel Smith was traveling south on U.S. 79 in Jefferson County, according to a preliminary crash report.
Authorities said Smith’s 2013 Toyota Camry drove off the left side of the road in a rural part of the county. Then, the back of her car struck a tree.
The vehicle then started rotating counterclockwise, causing its right side to hit a tree, the report stated.
Smith died as a result of the crash, authorities said.
Travel conditions at the time were clear and dry, the report stated.
An 88-year-old man was killed in a fiery south Arkansas crash after becoming trapped in his vehicle late Saturday, police said.
State police say a 2005 Toyota driven by A.C. Benton of El Dorado traveled off Lawson Road in Union County and into a ditch, where it caught fire around 11:50 p.m.
Benton was not able to get out of his vehicle and was later
pronounced dead, authorities noted. No one else was reported hurt.
The weather was clear and the road was dry at the time, the report stated.
A northeast Arkansas man was killed in a wreck Saturday night when the car he was driving traveled off a state highway, struck an embankment and rolled over, authorities said.
The crash happened shortly before 10 p.m. on Arkansas 119 south of Rector in Clay County, according to a preliminary report from Arkansas State Police.
Alberto Escandon-Martinez, 57, of Rector was driving north in a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt when he lost control of the car in a curve and drove off the road, state police said. The car then struck an embankment and rolled, the report stated.
Escandon-Martinez suffered fatal injuries. A minor who was a passenger in the car was reported injured and treated at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. Police did not list the extent of his injuries.
Conditions were clear and dry at the time of the wreck, the report stated.