Two killed, three injured in I-55 crash Sunday night

By David Howell
North Mississippi Herald
WATER VALLEY – Two people were killed and three others injured in two related automobile accidents Sunday night on I-55 between the Enid and Oakland exit.
Yalobusha County Coroner Ronnie Stark reported Cynthia Williams, 41, and Carlton Raynor, 26, both of Batesville were pronounced dead at the scene. Stark said they were returning from the funeral of a family member in Grenada in different vehicles.
The accidents were worked by the Mississippi Highway Patrol, but Yalobusha County Sheriff Lance Humphreys reported his department assisted with traffic.
The sheriff explained that after the first vehicle left the road and wrecked, family members stopped to check on the driver, parking on opposite sides of the north lanes on I-55.  He reported witnesses at the scene said the fatalities occurred in a second accident as the group was preparing to leave and was struck by a female driver in a Camaro.
Williams was walking across interstate and was struck, along with Raynor, who had returned to his vehicle and was pulling back on the interstate. The impact pushed Raynor’s vehicle across the interstate into the other car, still parked on the left side of the lanes. The driver of the first vehicle that wrecked was transported to Panola Medical Center in Batesville, a second person that was standing near the vehicles was also struck and transported to UMMC in Grenada with non-life threatening injuries.
The driver of the Camaro that struck the vehicles was airlifted to Regional One Medical in Memphis.
Both ambulances from Yalobusha responded along with one from Grenada County. Also responding were members of the Yalobusha County fire unit as well as deputies from Panola County. Yalobusha County deputy coroner Debbie Jackson also responded with Stark.
“It was a very chaotic and one of the toughest accident scenes I have seen in a while,” Humphreys told the Herald.
He said the initial call came in before 11 p.m. and it took several hours to clear the scene.