One person is dead and others are injured following a car accident in Mesquite, Texas, just east of Dallas.
Mesquite News is reporting that a major accident happened on the 14400 block of eastbound Interstate 20 near Lawson Road on Wednesday morning around 11:27 a.m.
An investigation into the accident revealed that a 2004 Dodge Ram was headed west pulling a 2010 utility trailer when the trailer became detached from the truck and went over the center median into the eastbound lanes of traffic.
A 2003 Ford Windstar minivan carrying three passengers was driving in the east bound lanes when it was hit by the utility trailer head-on.
The driver of the van, 61-year-old Marisela Gomez Maldonado of Kaufman, was taken by air to Baylor Hospital in Dallas in critical condition, but later died as a result of her injuries. The other two passengers in the van, 48-year-old Belen Soriano, and 37-year-old Isabelle Mendez, both of Kaufman, were transported to Dallas Regional Hospital in Mesquite with minor injuries.
The driver of the Dodge Ram was identified as 53-year-old Laurie Ann Thomas of Terrell. There were three other passengers in the Dodge besides the driver. No one in the Dodge was injured since the vehicle was not actually involved in the collision.
This accident is the first motor-vehicle fatality in Mesquite in 2016. The accident remains under investigation by the Mesquite Police Department traffic division.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: