FULTON, KY (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A Clarksville man driving the wrong way on a highway near Fulton, Kentucky, crashed head-on into a minivan, killing himself and two people in the other vehicle.
At about 8:24 p.m. Thursday, Kentucky State Police began receiving calls of a wrong-way driver on the Purchase Parkway traveling north in the southbound lanes from mile marker 4, according to a news release today from Graves County Sheriff Jon Hayden.
This is just northeast of Union City, Tennessee, about 100 miles west of Clarksville.
“Officers from Graves County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police urgently attempted to intercept the wrong-way vehicle,” Hayden said.
At 8:33 p.m., at mile marker 17, Sgt. Chris Mensinger saw the vehicle traveling north in the southbound lanes. Just before Mensinger could stop the vehicle, it collided head-on with a southbound maroon minivan, Hayden said.
The wrong-way vehicle was a 2011 GMC Sierra pickup truck driven by Sammy McCarty, 64, of Clarksville. McCarty died at the scene.
The minivan was as a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan, driven by James Johnson, 50, of Fulton Kentucky. He also died at the scene.
The passenger in the minivan was Carla Watson, 67. She was transported to Jackson Purchase Medical, where she died shortly thereafter.
Autopsies are scheduled as well as toxicology reports to determine if intoxicants played a role, Hayden said.