By Jeremy A. Corley
Managing Editor
Van Alstyne police worked two wrecks on U.S. 75 Monday evening in the span of 90 minutes, with one wreck resulting in a Garland woman's death.
Both wrecks involved vehicles driving the wrong direction in the northbound lanes of the highway. VAPD Lt. Tim Barnes said alcohol was suspected to be a factor in both accidents.
Police received a call about the first vehicle shortly before 8 p.m.
A 51-year-old Howe woman was driving a small Toyota pickup southbound in a northbound lane when she hit a northbound Dodge Ram 1500 pickup.
The driver of the Dodge, a Plano man, saw the Toyota approaching and took evasive maneuvers to lessen the impact.
"The passenger side of her vehicle ended up making a glancing blow to his passenger side," Barnes said. "It could have been much worse. His driving skill kept the wreck from being much worse."
Barnes said the man was a professional driver for a delivery company.
The woman was transported to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman with injuries that were not life-threatening. She was later released.
The man was not taken to a hospital from the scene, but he went to a hospital later that night. He was treated and released.
Pending lab results, the woman could face a charge of intoxication assault, a third-degree felony.
As emergency personnel continued to work the scene of the accident, another report of a wrong-way driver in a Ford Explorer came in shortly after 9 p.m.
Officer Chuck Milner headed northbound on the east service road to locate the vehicle, which he spotted just north of Farmington Road. Milner immediately turned his vehicle around and called for a spike strip as he drove along the access road parallel to the Explorer on the highway.
Less than a minute after Milner spotted the vehicle, the Explorer slammed head-on into a four-door Toyota passenger vehicle.
Milner drove across the grassy median and put out a fire that started in the Explorer.
Emergency crews arrived and took the driver of the Toyota, 64-year-old Hien Vuong of Garland, to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center. She later was transported to Medical City Dallas, where she died.
The driver of the Explorer, 44-year-old Bobbi Josephine Lalonde Ellington of Sherman, was taken to the same hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries. Upon her release, she was arrested by Van Alstyne officers, who charged her with intoxicated manslaughter with a motor vehicle, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
She was put in Grayson County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.