Two people were killed, and six others injured in an accident in rural Jackson County in Northeast Arkansas Tuesday that involved a total of 16 vehicles.
According to a preliminary report from the Arkansas State Police, all the vehicles were northbound on U.S. Highway 67 at approximately the 99-mile marker when they encountered heavy smoke from a nearby field fire that covered all four lanes of the highway.
As the vehicles entered the smoke, there was a chain reaction accident involving all 16 vehicles and they came to rest on or near the northbound traffic lanes.
The two fatalities were in the same vehicle and the injured were taken to three different hospitals.
The accident was reported at 2:15 p.m. and the deaths bring to 424 the number of people killed on the state’s highways so far this year.
