Two pedestrians were killed in separate road accidents in Arkansas on Tuesday.
Officers in Fort Smith responded just before 6 a.m. Tuesday to the 3000 block of Grand Avenue to a wreck involving a pedestrian and a vehicle, according to the Police Department. The pedestrian, Bradley Smithson, 34, did not survive.
Witnesses told police that they had seen Smithson walking west on Grand Avenue, on the north side of the road, before the crash. They said he was "behaving in an erratic manner," according to an email from Aric Mitchell, a spokesman for the Fort Smith police.
A witness, traveling east on Grand Avenue, noticed Smithson lying down in the middle of the avenue, Mitchell said in the email.
The motorist avoided a crash, stopped the vehicle and turned around in a nearby parking lot. The person talked to Smithson and began to "urge him to leave the roadway," Mitchell said. Smithson sat up, but he was then struck by a Chevrolet Silverado truck, which was traveling east on Grand Avenue, authorities said.
Police said the driver was not under the influence of any substances.
Authorities took a blood draw on Smithson and sent it to the state Crime Laboratory for analysis. The results are pending, Mitchell said.
The weather was clear, and the road was dry at the time of the crash, according to the report.
A 26-year-old pedestrian died after she was struck Tuesday morning by a pickup on Arkansas 267 in Beebe, authorities said.
Bethany Gunnell of Beebe was in the northbound lane of the highway shortly before 7:30 a.m. when a Ford F-150 struck her from behind, according to an Arkansas State Police preliminary report.
Gunnell died. No additional injuries were listed in the report.
It was lightly raining at the time of the crash, police said.
State Desk on 04/09/2020