HS coach among 4 dead in wrong-way crash on I-45 in Dallas Co
DALLAS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - Police are still working to figure out if alcohol was a factor in a late-night wrong-way crash along a highway in Dallas County that left 4 people dead and 2 others hospitalized.
It was just before midnight on May 22 when the Wilmer Police Department received a call from police in Ferris saying that a wrong-way driver, who had been going north in the southbound lanes of Interstate-45, had slammed into two vehicles at the 265-mile marker.
Both Wilmer and Ferris officers were trying to get to the scene -- just south of Mars Road -- where officials were getting reports that the head-on crash happened.
Once at the scene officers found an adult female and two juveniles in the vehicle that was going the wrong way, and an adult male and two juveniles in the vehicle that was hit head-on.
All three people in the wrong-way vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. In the other vehicle, the male driver -- later identified as Michael Coyne, a teacher and coach at Palestine Junior High -- was pronounced dead at the scene, and the two juveniles were taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
According to the Palestine Independent School District, Coyne was returning home after attending the Mavericks game at the AAC in Dallas when he and the passengers in the vehicle were hit. Administrators say the two young, injured passengers in the car are also students in the district.
Investigators are now working to determine if alcohol was a contributing factor in the accident.