Six people, including two children, are dead after a person driving a pickup truck the wrong way on a Mississippi highway collided with a car.
Just before 3 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck was headed south in the northbound lane of Interstate 55 in Jackson when the crash occurred, police told the Associated Press, the Mississippi Clarion Ledger and local CBS affiliate WJTV.
The truck, which was carrying only the driver, collided with a Hyundai Sonata headed north near Daniel Lake Boulevard. The Hyundai was carrying one driver and four passengers, all of whom died in the collision.
Jackson police detective Tommie Brown told WJTV and NBC affiliate WLBT that the Hyundai was carrying a man, a woman, a teenager and two children, all from Copiah County, located south of Jackson. The driver of the Chevrolet was a 23-year-old man from Scott County, east of Jackson. The victims have yet to be named.
Jackson police, the American Medical Response and the Hinds County Coroner’s Officer were all dispatched to the scene, but both drivers and all four of the passengers in the Hyundai were pronounced dead at the scene.
In a release obtained by ABC affiliate WAPT, Jackson police officials said of the crash: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of this tragic accident.”
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Mississippi Highway Patrol officer Darnika Mayfield urged drivers to obey the state’s left lane passing law to avoid wrong-way collisions.
“A lot of the time, somebody might [have] some kind of medical condition or they may be impaired, and they’re thinking they’re traveling on the right side on the opposite lane,” she told WJTV. “So that’s why we stress that when you’re traveling, stay in that right lane. … The purpose of a left lane is only for passing. Once you pass, you must get back over.”
Jackson police told several of the outlets that they are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Jackson police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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