Crashes kill LR cyclist, passenger in Chevrolet
A 51-year-old bicyclist died after being struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run early Monday in Little Rock, authorities said.
The crash happened shortly after 2:45 a.m. near 57th and Hopson streets.
According to a preliminary report, John Edward Pilcher of Little Rock was riding west in the eastbound lane of 57th when he was hit by a vehicle that was also headed west in the eastbound lane.
The vehicle then continued west, Arkansas State Police troopers said. A description of the vehicle was not listed in the report.
The report states that the weather was clear and the road was dry at the time of the crash.
The deadly crash was one of two reported on Arkansas roads in less than 48 hours.
On Tuesday evening, a one-vehicle crash left a woman dead and four others hurt in Polk County.
According to a separate report, a 2005 Chevrolet was headed south on U.S. 71 near Potter when its driver, 31-year-old Jesus Meza of Grannis, lost control in a curve shortly after 5 p.m. The vehicle traveled off the road and struck a fence and a tree, authorities said.
A passenger in the Chevrolet, Maria Guadalupe Zarate, 69, of Grannis, suffered fatal injuries. Meza and three other passengers — Victor Zarate, 29, and Jhanell Marlette Wilson, 37, both of Grannis, and an unidentified child — were listed as hurt.
Rain was falling at the time of the wreck, the report states. This week, state police also released information about two earlier crashes that left four people dead:
On Sept. 30, John Gentry, 43, of Steens, Miss.; Jason Braddock, 44, of Bryant; and Grady Mordecai, 33, of Columbus, Miss., were killed when Gentry lost control of the pickup they were in and the truck overturned on U.S. 62 in Mountain Home.
On Aug. 28, Brenda Allbright, 56, of Harrison died after a wreck a day earlier on Harrison’s Wilson Avenue in which she was thrown from her 2016 Honda when the vehicle hit a pole.
At least 384 people have died in wrecks on Arkansas roads so far this year, according to preliminary figures.