NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, Texas — A 22-year-old woman is dead after her vehicle struck a truck tractor semi-trailer Thursday afternoon on US Highway 59 between Nacogdoches and Lufkin.
Paola Rojas Rondon, of Mission, was driving a 2014 Hyundai Sonata north and made a U-turn in front of a 2023 Freightliner truck tractor semi-trailer driving south on the highway. The truck tractor struck Rondon's vehicle on its passenger side and the truck tractor then overturned, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The truck tractor spilled the diesel that it was carrying and a HazMat crew had to clean up the road, DPS said.
Rondon was pronounced dead at the scene. Her passengers Carlos Gulloso-Mendez, 24, and Alejandro Bolano Casanova, 26, were taken to the hospital for treatment, according to DPS.
The driver of the freightliner Terry Farris, 57, and the passenger John Mottet, 43, were taken to the hospital for treatment, DPS said. This crash remains under investigation.