Insights

A man was killed and three others injured in a two-vehicle crash on Highway 85 Sunday evening. At about 8:30 p.m., Jason Smith, 43, of Murrieta, Calif., was driving a 1985 Dodge pickup travelling south on the highway when he drove onto the west shoulder, overcorrected and entered the northbound lane. Then a 2011 Ford pickup heading north struck the passenger side of his vehicle. Both vehicles came to a stop facing northeast in the east ditch. Smith was pronounced dead on the scene. He was not wearing a seatbelt. The three occupants of the Ford pickup were injured and…

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A well-respected dentist along with his two teenage sons and an older brother were killed in a plane that crashed after departing from a regional airport near Roanoke. A Beechcraft Bonanza, owned and operated by Dr. Leonard Ledet, 60, disappeared about 25 miles southeast of Terrel after it took off Saturday morning from the Northwest Regional Airport near Roanoke in Denton County, north of Dallas. Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration said a search began after air traffic controllers lost radar and radio contact with the plane. A Texas Department of Safety helicopter that took part in the aerial…

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A Gilmer man was killed in a one-vehicle crash in Upshur County early Sunday morning. The accident happened at about 4:00 a.m. on rural Bluebird Road, east of Bob-O-Link Road. Karl Oney Jr., 23, was driving a 1997 Chevy S10 pickup heading west on Bluebird Road when his truck ran off the oil top county road. He overcorrected causing his vehicle to go onto the side of an embankment and overturn. Oney was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:50 a.m.by Upshur County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace W.V. Ray. Oney is the son of a well-known Gilmer businessman…

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Two men were killed in a fiery crash in Dallas early Friday morning. Two other passengers were injured. According to Dallas police, 25-year-old Joshua Armstead was travelling at a high rate of speed in a gray Dodge Stratus along North Central Expressway near Lemmon Avenue when he lost control of the vehicle, slammed into a wrought iron fence, and then struck a wooden utility pole. Armstead and his passenger, 19-year-old Trey Pupenbroke, were trapped as the car burst into flames. Dallas police tried to put out the fire with extinguishers. Two other passengers were pulled out and taken to hospitals…

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A one vehicle accident in Hunt County Thursday evening claimed the life of a Greenville woman. At around 8:20 p.m., a 1992 Chevrolet Euro was travelling east of County Road 4106 on Farm-to-Market Road 499 when the car left the roadway and struck an object. The driver, identified as 47-year-old Sharla Watts, was ejected from the vehicle. No further information was released. Services were pending with Lynch Funeral Service of Greenville Friday afternoon.

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A Nacogdoches woman driving the wrong way on U.S. 59 hitting three other vehicles was killed Friday morning. The victim of the fatal crash was identified as 52-year-old Debby Jean Austin. According to a Department of Public Safety report, Austin was driving south on US 59 in a Ford Taurus when she crossed the median for an unknown reason and sideswiped a 2011 Mazda car. She continued moving south in the northbound lanes and struck the second vehicle, a 2004 Saturn.The final collision with a 2005 Chevrolet 1500 truck driven by Lester Gold, 53, of Lufkin knocked Austin’s vehicle into…

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A Bristow helicopter pilot was killed in a test flight in Intracoastal City, Louisiana Friday. The Vermilion Parish Sheriffs Office was notified of a Bristow's Bell 407 helicopter that crashed at around 8:00 a.m. The chopper took off from the Chevron heliport near Intracoastal City and crashed only a quarter mile away from the heliport. The pilot, Carl Amos, from Corpus Christi, Texas was pronounced dead. There were no other passengers onboard the aircraft at the time of the accident. Bristow Group Incorporated is a Houston based company that specializes in helicopter services for offshore businesses. Bristow is currently cooperating…

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An East Texas man died and his passenger injured in a one-vehicle accident in south Tyler Thursday. Rocky Lee Padgett, 29, of Malakoff, was pronounced dead at the scene of the wreck. Police found his vehicle in a ditch of about six feet of weeds and bush. The incident happened at around 12:40 a.m. after he left the roadway near the 300 block of West Grande Boulevard, just east of Highway 155. Utility crew from Oncor reported the accident as they were on the scene doing work at that time. A Tyler Fire Department ladder truck assisted in lighting the…

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A guilty verdict was returned Wednesday in the trial of a Waco man charged in connection with a fatal traffic accident that killed 64-year-old Peggy Jean Cantrell. Jurors found 27-year-old Jacob Scott Turner guilty of intoxication manslaughter with a deadly weapon in the accident on July 21, 2011. Cantrell, who was driving a 2002 Dodge Neon, attempted to turn left onto New Road from Bosque Boulevard in Waco when a 2006 Ford Explorer driven by Turner was travelling at high rate of speed and struck her vehicle. The impact caused Cantrell’s car gas tank to burst and catch fire. The…

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The San Antonio Independent School District community is coming together Thursday after losing one of their bus drivers in a crash. Fellow bus drivers of Dolores Martinez, 63, tied yellow and black ribbons to their buses in her honor. The yellow ribbons symbolize the school and school service as well as the color of the buses, while the black ribbons symbolize the black trim of the bus as well as the loss they suffered this week. Martinez was driving an SAISD bus when it collided with a Judson ISD bus at North Foster Road and Candlemeadow, outside Wagner High School,…

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