Tyler

A head-on collision just outside Tyler left an 80-year-old woman dead and a 70-year-old man injured Tuesday afternoon.

The woman, identified as May Lowery, of LaRue, was driving her Buick passenger car eastbound on Spur 364 when she veered into the westbound lane.

According to a report by Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Michael Bortz, Adrian Gurganus, of Tyler, was traveling westbound in an 18-wheeler when Ms. Lowery’s Buick crossed sides.

The report states Gurganus tried evasive maneuvers to avoid hitting the Buick, but was unable to avoid the collision.

Ms. Lowery was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gurganus was transported by ambulance to East Texas Medical Center in Tyler for “non-incapacitating injuries,” and is currently listed in good condition.

Later that afternoon, one man was airlifted and another transported by ambulance to a Tyler hospital after another head-on collision shortly after 5 p.m.

According to an initial report by Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Jonathan Peters, a 1988 blue Chevrolet pickup was traveling southbound on Farm-to-Market Road 346 when the truck veered into the oncoming lane, striking a white Ford F-150 pickup. Both trucks, severely mangled, came to rest in a muddy embankment on the side of the road south of Flint.

Bullard and Flint-Gresham volunteer fire departments arrived on scene to help extract two men from the trucks.

Authorities on scene said the driver of the Chevrolet was airlifted to a Tyler hospital for his injuries and the driver of the Ford pickup was taken by ambulance to East Texas Medical Center.