IN SHORT: Passengers die as the driver of a Silverado pickup tries to avoid hitting a deer and instead hits a utility pole.
Two young men died Sunday in a one-vehicle accident on Lewisberg near Highway 5 in Cabot.
Though the official accident report has not been released, reports say a woman was driving a gray Chevy Silverado and hit a power pole when she swerved off the road to avoid hitting a deer. The pole broke and the power lines from the pole fell onto the vehicle, setting it on fire on the 1600 block of Lewisburg.
The Mt. Springs Volunteer Fire Department and the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department worked the accident.
Mt. Springs Fire Chief Harold Ward said it was raining at the time and the roads were slick.
Ward said the department arrived to find the Silverado upside down and engulfed in flames.
The department was unable to work on the fire immediately because the active power lines posed an electrical threat that would only complicate the situation.
The passengers, Clay Warren, 20, of Cabot, and Josh Moore, 21, of Ward, died in the accident. The driver was taken by ambulance for medical attention.
Arrangements are incomplete for Moore at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe and for Warren at Cabot Funeral Home in Cabot.
Ward said there have been 16 deaths in eight accidents on Hwy. 5 from Hwy. 89 to Hwy. 319 in the last year.
The accident Sunday happened about thee weeks shy of the March 18, 2004, accident a mile and a half away that claimed the lives of three teenage girls.
The three girls — Alicia Rix, 16, of North Little Rock, Jae Lynn Russell, 16, of 8226 Centennial Road and Taylor Hall, 15, of 128 Almond Cove, Sherwood — died when their car turned into the path of an 18-wheeler.
Rix and Hall were students at Sylvan Hills High School. Russell was transferring to Sylvan Hills from North Pulaski High School.
According to the State Police report, Russell, the driver, and Rix died at the scene. Taylor was airlifted to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center, where she died from her injuries.
The driver of the truck, Clayton Brown, 47, of 1691 Windchime, suffered minor injuries.
Based on State Police and witness reports, the girls were at a stop sign eastbound on Highway 89 when a pickup ahead of them pulled out onto Highway 5.
The girls followed and ended up in the path of Brown’s southbound truck.
Two other people had died at the intersection in the months preceding their accident and the intersection was on the state Highway Department’s list of most dangerous intersections before the accident.
A temporary signal light was placed at the intersection to reduce the number of accidents there.
