MINERAL WELLS - A wrong-way driver was involved in a fatal crash early Sunday morning in Wood County, officials said.
Heath D. Buck, 26, of Mineral Wells, was killed when his 2001 Jeep Cherokee struck a hillside, said Sgt. Brett Pickens with the Wood County Sheriff's Office. Pickens said two deputies responded to the 159 milepost of Interstate 77 when Wood County dispatchers advised them of calls about a car traveling northbound in the southbound lane of I-77.
There were conflicting stories on the description of the vehicle, he said. "They ranged from a pickup truck, car, silver, white," Pickens said.
When deputies were dispatched to the scene about 2 a.m., there was no sign of the driver or vehicle, Pickens said.
"We actually got at 3:39 in the morning that there was a crash," said Pickens.
The call came in after a driver saw the vehicle on the hillside, he said. According to the accident report, Buck died from multiple traumatic injuries from the crash at Mineral Wells.
Before Buck crashed, still traveling northbound in the southbound lane, he traveled in the median for about 1,900 feet, officials said. Pickens said when the driver got to the Wolf Run Road overpass he went airborne, crossing both lanes of Wolf Run Road and hitting the hillside.
Pickens said deputies were confident Buck's vehicle was the one callers described as the wrong-way driver, because the Jeep Cherokee was white with darker spots on it and there was a winch on the vehicle.
The crash site was the 162.5 milepost of I-77.
