Three fatal weekend accidents in East Texas, four dead
Posted/updated on: December 21, 2021 at 12:26 pm
EAST TEXAS — DPS reports four deaths in three separate weekend highway accidents in East Texas. On FM 1651 in Van Zandt County Saturday morning, a preliminary report indicates one driver recognized another driver as an acquaintance and swerved over the center stripe towards the second vehicle in an attempt to scare her. The vehicles collided, killing the second driver, 18-year-old Taylor L. Raper of Canton. According to our news partner KETK, the first driver, 17-year-old Alfonso Medina of Canton, has been charged with manslaughter and providing a false statement to a law enforcement officer. His bonds total $525,000.
On U.S. 259 south of Kilgore in Rusk County, 37-year-old Malcolm McBath of Longview was killed when he apparently drifted off the roadway, overcorrected and struck a tree before dawn Sunday morning. And in Panola County just outside Carthage Sunday morning, a two-vehicle collision took the lives of 21-year-olds Alexis and Hunter Wilkes, both of Minden, Louisiana. A two month went to the hospital in stable condition.
