A Greenwood motorcyclist was killed and his passenger was injured in a hit-and-run incident south of Fort Smith on Wednesday night, Arkansas State Police troopers said.
John L. Hayes, 51, was driving south in the outside lane of U.S. 71 near Gate Nine Cutoff Road in Sebastian County at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to a preliminary crash report from state police. That section of U.S. 71 is a little more than a mile southeast of the Interstate 49 interchange, and it’s about 10 miles south of the Fort Smith Regional Airport.
Hayes lost control of the motorcycle and fell in the inside lane of southbound U.S. 71, troopers said.
Another southbound vehicle struck Hayes as he was lying in the road and continued without stopping, troopers said. No description was available for that vehicle.
It was unclear as of Friday afternoon whether the passenger on the motorcycle, a 37-year-old woman from Fort Smith, was injured when Hayes lost control of the motorcycle or was injured in the hit-and-run incident.
Hayes and his passenger were taken to Mercy Hospital Fort Smith.
Troopers describe the conditions at the time of the crash as clear and dry.
A 77-year-old Corning woman died Tuesday night after her vehicle rear-ended a land roller in Clay County, according to Arkansas State Police.
Lina Johnson was traveling north in a 2018 Honda when the accident occurred. She was on Arkansas 135 near Arkansas 90, about 20 miles north of Paragould, at about 7:58 p.m. at the time of the incident, according to a preliminary crash report from state police.
Her vehicle rear-ended the right rear corner of a land roller attached to a 2008 John Deere tractor, troopers said.
Johnson’s vehicle veered to the right after the impact, and it came to rest in the ditch, the report states.
She was taken to Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where she later died, troopers said.
Less than two days later, a 61-year-old woman was killed in a Faulkner County crash when her vehicle struck a tree, troopers said.
The woman, described as Jane Doe of Maumelle, was driving a 2001 Ford Mustang north near 310 Baker-Wills Parkway, about a mile from the Interstate 40 exit at Conway, at about 2 p.m. Thursday at the time of the incident, according to a preliminary crash report from Arkansas State Police.
The woman’s vehicle veered off the right side of the road, and the right side of her car struck a tree before the vehicle spun around and came to a rest partially in the northbound lane and east shoulder of the road, troopers said.
Troopers describe the conditions at the time of both crashes as clear and dry.