Authorities say two people are dead in the Texas Panhandle after their passenger car pulled in front of a tractor-trailer.
The Texas Department of Public Safety says the collision occurred Monday evening in Ochiltree County north of Canadian in the northeast corner of the Panhandle.
Senior Trooper Chris Ray said in a statement Tuesday that 56-year-old Fernando Ortiz was killed along with his passenger, 49-year-old Leticia Ortiz. The relationship between the two Spearman residents was not immediately clear. Both died at the scene.
Ray says Fernando Ortiz's northbound Chevrolet Equinox was attempting a left turn off U.S. Route 83 and crossed into the path of the southbound big rig. The driver of the rig, 49-year-old Billy Gene Schwandt of Johnson City, Tennessee, was not hurt.
