Highway 50A crash results in fatality

One man was killed in a fiery crash on U.S. Highway 50A near Hazen on Thursday morning.

The driver of a white pickup truck died at the scene. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Sgt. Tom Ames of the Nevada Highway Patrol said the preliminary investigation shows that shortly after 9 a.m., a white pickup truck was traveling eastbound on the highway and the driver, for some unknown reason, crossed left of center and collided with a semi-truck.

Traffic on Highway 50A was diverted in both directions to the Leetville Junction and Highway 95A for more than four hours as troopers removed the body, the pickup truck and debris from the crash.

This was the first fatality since the new four-lane highway between Leetville Junction and Jersey Lane opened in late June.

The Nevada Department of Transportation listed the number of fatalities on the highway as a main reason for the widening of the road.

Figures from the Nevada Highway Patrol reveal that of the 12 fatal crashes in Churchill County in the 21 months leading up to October 1997, nine were on either Highway 50 or Highway 50A.

Ames said the highway reopened between 1:30 and 2 p.m.