A husband and wife were killed Friday afternoon when a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles shut down State Highway 361 near Port Aransas, Texas. Authorities say a southbound vehicle rear-ended another southbound car, forcing it into oncoming traffic, where it collided head-on with a northbound vehicle before a fourth vehicle also struck the scene. Two other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a local hospital. The Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office later identified the victims as 55-year-old Roberto “Robert” Lopez and 46-year-old Karen Lopez, Marine Corps veterans and parents of six children. Investigators say alcohol was not a factor, but the cause of the initial rear-end collision remains under investigation.
According to KRIS 6 News, Corpus Christi police received the initial call at approximately 3:40 p.m. near the Mayan Princess and Island Park Estates on Highway 361, and the highway was closed in both directions for hours while crews cleared the scene. The outlet reported that the Lopez crash was the third fatal wreck on the highway within a single week, following a head-on collision on August 10 that killed 59-year-old Jarrod Fangman in Port Aransas. In response, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported that the Texas Department of Transportation lowered the speed limit from 60 mph to 50 mph along a stretch of the highway and increased Texas Highway Patrol presence, while state lawmakers pushed TxDOT for faster safety improvements.
