Police Identify One Driver Involved In Head-On Collision On Bluegrass Parkway
Two Dead In Fiery Collision
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
Officials have released the identity of one of the two men who died in a fiery head on collision on the Bluegrass Parkway in Mercer County.
Donald Jackson of Cynthiana is one of the two drivers to perish in the crash.
Chief Deputy Wes Gaddis of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office said the identify of the other driver—a 32 year old male—will not be publicly released until law enforcement is able to contact next of kin.
The accident happened approximately 5:30 a.m. on Monday, July 4, around mile marker 53. Mercer Sheriff Ernie Kelty, who happened to be traveling on personal business, was one of the first to arrive.
“Both vehicles were fully engulfed,” Kelty said. “There was nothing anyone there could do.”
Dep. Gaddis said Jackson, who was born in the 1940s, was driving west in the eastbound lane of the Bluegrass Parkway when he smashed into the other vehicle.
Gaddis said law enforcement in Anderson County had already received complaints about a wrong-way driver, but by the time they reached the scene it was too late.
Gaddis said there was no way the drivers survived the initial impact of the collision.
The bodies and the vehicles were taken to Frankfort for examination.
Gaddis was still out gathering evidence at 5 p.m. Monday evening. At one point, traffic on all four lanes on the parkway was stopped for the investigation. The road is currently open but media reports said it will have to be repaved because of the damage.
it was josh eversole and the old guy who died