Friday’s crash claims one Second 2023 auto fatality reported at U.S. 77A & FM 531 this summer

A Hallettsville woman died and another woman from Portland was taken to the hospital after a two-vehicle accident occurred Friday night at the Sweet Home turnoff on U.S. 77 Alternate, officials with Texas Department of Public Safety reported.

According to the DPS report, Pennie Jarret-Gehlhausen, 61, of Hallettsville was headed west along FM 531 at about 9:30 p.m. Friday when she apparently pulled her 2004 Honda Pilot in front of an approaching 2014 Toyota Avalon headed north on U.S. 77-A.

The Avalon, driven by 21-year-old Catherin Brigid Strain of Portland, struck Jarret-Gehlhausen’s driver’s side door, killing the elder woman instantly.

Strain continued through a barbed-wire fence and came to rest in a roadside pasture, the DPS report said, while Jarret-Gehlhausen’s Honda drifted across the highway and came to rest in a ditch.

Lavaca County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Travis Hill was called on to begin the inquest, DPS reported, while Strain was taken to nearby Yoakum Community Hospital by ambulance.

The accident investigation continues. Friday’s crash was the second fatality accident this summer at that location.

Although rushed to a regional medical center by helicopter following a lengthy extrication from her vehicle by rescuers using the Jaws of Life, 74-year-old Joy Kroger of Bellville later died from injuries sustained when the entire front end of her sedan became lodged beneath a 2001 International dump truck in a crash that occurred at that same intersection the afternoon of Thursday, June 8.

The driver of the dump truck, Hallie Herman, 20, of Shiner, was likewise taken to the Yoakum hospital, where she was released later that day