State officials released and updated reports on three separate deadly crashes along Arkansas roads since late last month, bringing the yearly total to at least 60 roadway deaths so far.
Damian Lazoya, 22, of Mercedes, Texas died on Feb. 22, a day after being fatally struck by a truck along Interstate 40 in West Memphis, according information from the Arkansas State Police and the Wolfe Brothers Funeral Home. Lazoya was a pedestrian, state police said.
A state police report listed rainy and wet conditions at the time of the Crittenden County wreck. The report didn’t list the name of the driver of the truck that hit him.
Another report released recently involved a 46-year-old Altheimer man whose car burst into flames after striking an abandoned vehicle on Phillips County Road 529.
The report said Brian O’Neal Bishop suffered fatal injuries in the Jan. 31 wreck.
A state police spokesman couldn’t say the exact reason for the delay in the reports, but noted that the public release of reports is sometimes held off pending certain developments, such as a death that occurs days or weeks after a wreck.
It wasn’t immediately known when Bishop died.
State police also released details in a Feb. 15 crash where an 18-year-died near El Paso.
Thomas Booth, 18, died after his vehicle crossed the center line of Arkansas 5 and was hit by an oncoming truck, a police report states.
An updated report said Patsy Booth, a 72-year-old passenger, also died after suffering fatal injuries.
Both were taken to UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately known when Patsy Booth died.