Accidents on highways kill 5 people

Five people died and five more were injured in wrecks on Arkansas roads since Friday, according to Arkansas State Police preliminary accident reports.

Horace Ware, 84, of DeWitt died just before 6 p.m. Friday on Arkansas 1 in Monroe County when his 2004 Chevrolet Impala left the roadway and hit a tree.

Paula Ware, 62, also of DeWitt, a passenger, was injured in the crash.

Conditions at the time of the wreck were clear and dry, the report states.

Biagio Festante, 47, of Lecanto, Fla., was killed shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday when he was hit while crossing an exit ramp from Interstate 440 to U.S. 165 on foot in North Little Rock.

The driver of a 2016 Ford Explorer attempted to swerve but hit Festante with the front right bumper, killing him.

Conditions at the time of the incident were cloudy and dry, the report states.

Dennis Visser, 68, of Sioux Center, Iowa, died about 5:30 a.m. Sunday on U.S. 65 in Boone County when trying to make a U-turn in front of a tractor-trailer truck.

[RELATED: Click here for full coverage of fatal wrecks in Arkansas » arkansasonline.com/fatalwrecks/]


Visser was southbound with the truck behind him and tried to make a U-turn to return northbound, but the truck was unable to avoid Visser's 2015 Ram truck and hit it on the driver's side, killing Visser and injuring passengers Harvey Mulder, 60, and Verlyn Mulder, 62, both of Sioux Center.

The investigating trooper judged conditions at the crash as cloudy and dry, the report states.

Norberto De Los Santos-Sanchez, 32, of North Little Rock died about 11:30 p.m. Monday in a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 30 in rural Clark County.

De Los Santos-Sanchez's vehicle left the road into a ditch, striking a tree and killing him.

Conditions at the time of the crash were clear and dry, the report states.

Bonnie Hutton, 69, of Mena died about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 40 in rural St. Francis County in a wreck involving two tractor-trailer trucks.

Hutton was the passenger in a 2019 Freightliner driven by Charles Hutton, 59, of Mena, when a 2014 Mack driven by Jennifer Dysart, 44, of Kimberling City, Miss., merged into the right lane. Charles Hutton was traveling faster and unable to avoid hitting the other truck in the rear, resulting in a crash that left the Freightliner in a ditch.

Dysart and Charles Hutton were both injured in the wreck.

Road conditions were clear and dry at the time of the wreck, the report states.

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