At least four people died in road accidents since Sunday, authorities said.
A vehicle crashed into a fallen tree early Thursday in Pine Bluff, leaving one person dead and another injured, police said.
The vehicle was traveling south on Hutchinson Street near Smart Avenue about 1:30 a.m. when it hit a tree that had fallen near the road, according to a news release.
The identities of the deceased and injured were not released.
In a separate crash about 12 hours earlier in rural Mississippi County, a Bullpit, Ill., man was fatally struck on Interstate 55, according to Arkansas State Police.
Richard Snider, 57, was walking across the interstate about 1:30 p.m., according to a preliminary report, when a tractor-trailer traveling south struck him.
Snider died, and no other injuries were listed in the report.
A Crossett woman died after her vehicle veered off a highway Tuesday and ended up submerged in water, state police said.
Joanna Ward, 30, was driving a Toyota Corolla west on U.S. 82 about 3:35 p.m. near the line between Ashley and Union counties when it drifted left, according to a state police preliminary report.
The vehicle crossed grass near the roadside, flipped, then came to a rest upside down fully submerged in water, the report states.
No other injuries were listed by state police in that wreck.
On Sunday, 86-year-old Joan Corliss of Rogers died after her Chevrolet S-10 collided with a Chevrolet Trax about 2:25 p.m. at U.S. 412 and Washington County Road 382, according to a separate report.
Corliss' vehicle, which was heading north, failed to yield to the eastbound Trax, the report states.
Troopers said the Trax's driver was injured in the crash.
Weather was clear, and roads were dry at the time of both wrecks, according to the reports.
State police have released additional details on a pursuit last week in Fort Smith that ended in a wreck, injuring a trooper and killing a driver.
An officer with the U.S. Forest Service began pursuing a Dodge headed south on U.S. 71 about 6:30 a.m. Friday, according to a state police news release. The officer reportedly saw the vehicle fail to stop for a traffic signal and pass through the intersection along the highway shoulder.
Authorities said state police trooper Michael Ellis later joined the pursuit.
Shortly before 7 a.m., the Dodge's driver, 34-year-old Justin Battenfield, turned his vehicle east onto Arkansas 255, police said. He encountered Ellis, who attempted to stop him by using a "precision immobilization technique," according to the news release.
During the maneuver, the vehicles collided and both veered off the road, a preliminary crash report states. The Dodge hit the embankment of a roadside ditch and flipped before striking a utility pole, according to the report.
Troopers said both vehicles then struck a second utility pole before each came to a rest.
Battenfield died in the wreck, while Ellis sustained injuries state police said were not life threatening.
Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Saccente of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 04/17/2020