Four people were killed early Friday after two separate crashes in the Austin area, Austin-Travis County EMS medics said.
The first crash happened just after midnight in South Austin. Medics and Austin police responded at 12:43 a.m. to the 13400 block of Interstate 35, just south of Texas 45 near Buda, for a collision involving a wrongway driver.
The driver, who was in a small sedan, was going south in the northbound lanes of the highway and collided head on with a truck that was pulling a travel trailer, causing both vehicles to catch fire, police said.
The wrong-way driver, who was described as a man in his 30s or 40s, was ejected from his vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the truck, described as a man in his 40s or 50s, was also pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
A woman who was a passenger in the truck was taken to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center with possibly life-threatening injuries, police said.
The northbound lanes of I-35 at Texas 45 were shut down because of the crash, Texas Department of Transportation officials said.
Hours later at 3:29 a.m., medics responded to the westbound service road in the 1400 block of East Anderson Lane in Northeast Austin, just west of Cameron Road, for a crash involving two vehicles and three people.
Two people were pronounced dead at the scene and one person was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center with minor injuries, medics said.