Killeen Police Investigating Fatal Saturday Morning Crash

Police in Killeen are investigating an early morning traffic accident that claimed the life of a driver Saturday.

Officers responded to the 8400 block of South Fort Hood Street around 4:18 a.m. after receiving numerous 911 calls in reference to a crash. On the way to the scene, they were told one of the vehicles had caught fire and was fully engulfed with the driver still inside.

When they arrived, officers found a 2008 white Chevy Malibu in a ditch and a teal colored 1998 Chevy Lumina on fire in the median. Because the Lumina was fully engulfed in flames, officers were unable to get to the driver. Once the fire was extinguished, it was learned that the driver had been unable to get out of the vehicle.

The driver of the Lumina was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin at 5:27a.m. Potvin ordered an autopsy to be performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas. The driver of the Malibu was airlifted to Baylor Scott & White Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the Chevy Lumina was traveling northbound on South Fort Hood St. in the southbound inside lane and the Chevy Malibu was traveling southbound in the inside lane when the two vehicles collided head-on in the 8400 block. The Lumina came to rest in the median east of the roadway and caught fire, while the Malibu came to rest in the ditch west of the roadway.

The driver of the Lumina has not been identified at this time, and the name of the victim at Baylor Scott & White has been withheld due to her condition. The Killeen Police Department's Traffic Unit continues to investigate the crash.