Temple, TX : Fatality accident victims identified on May, Tuesday 2nd 2017

The victims of Tuesday afternoon’s double fatality accident on State Highway 95 were identified Wednesday as 59-year-old Jeffery Smith and his wife, 61-year-old Shirley Smith.

The Smiths were in a 4-door red Toyota sedan that collided at about 3:11 p.m. with a dump-type truck loaded with sheet metal. The force of the crash caused major front end and driver’s side damage to the Toyota and sent the truck into a grassy ditch, where it landed on its side. The truck had some damage to its cab.

The couple was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:15 p.m. by Bell County Justice of the Peace David Barfield, and he ordered their bodies sent for autopsies to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.

The driver of the truck had minor injuries but wasn’t transported to the hospital.

The accident happened on SH 95 just south of Northeast Loop 363 where it intersects with exit lanes leaving U.S. Highway 36. Early accident reports said that the driver of the Toyota didn’t stop at a stop sign and collided with the truck.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation by the Temple Police Department’s traffic unit, police spokeswoman Shawana Neely said.

Responding to the accident were the Temple Police, Scott & White EMS and Temple Fire & Rescue.

Both northbound and southbound lanes of SH 95 were closed to traffic.

The accident investigation was handled by the Temple Police.

This is not the first fatality in that area.

Franklin Schwake, 78, of Moody, was the driver of a pickup truck who died May 8, 2014, after his vehicle collided with an 18-wheeler hauling sand at Southeast HK Dodgen Loop and SH 95.

Barfield also pronounced Schwake’s death, he said Tuesday.

The accident investigation was handled by Temple Police.

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Fatality accident victims identified