Man dies after wrong-way crash with tractor-trailer

A 71-year-old man died Wednesday after hitting a tractor-trailer head-on while driving the wrong way down South Main Street in Taylor, police said.

James Russell Grenwelge of Hearne died at the scene at 3:36 p.m. Wednesday in the 1600 block of South Main Street, according to a Taylor police news release.

Police are waiting for autopsy and toxicology reports to see whether Grenwelge had a medical condition, police Cmdr. Joseph Branson said Thursday.

Witnesses alerted officers at 2:34 p.m. Wednesday after seeing a man driving a white 2016 Chevrolet Malibu recklessly in the 3900 block of South Main and headed directly into the city, the release said. It said arriving officers saw Grenwelge driving north in the southbound lanes of traffic.

Police stopped southbound traffic in the 1600 block of South Main before Grenwelge arrived, the release said. It said one of the officers made a U-turn and turned on his lights and sirens to try to stop him. Grenwelge, however, did not stop, passed the officer in the 1600 block of South Main Street and then struck a tractor-trailer, police said.

The tractor trailer was pulling a flatbed-style trailer loaded with large wooden beams, the release stated. It was stopped in the outside southbound lanes when Grenwelge hit it, police said.

After Grenwelge hit the tractor-trailer, he remained pinned in his car until the Taylor Fire Department and Williamson County EMS got him out, according to the release. After removing him from the vehicle, paramedics treated him, but he did not survive, police said.

This was the first fatal wreck in Taylor this year, officials said.