Two Berwick residents injured in crash

MERTZON, Texas — Two people from Berwick sustained “incapacitating injuries” in a west Texas crash that claimed the life of one person Tuesday morning, according to a news release from Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Shawn Baxter.
At 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, a 1994 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was traveling east on U.S. 67 six miles southwest of Mertzon behind a 2012 Peterbilt tractor-trailer, Baxter said. The truck was making a left hand turn onto a private road when the Tacoma pickup failed to control its speed and struck the 18-wheeler from the rear causing the truck to strike a fence on the north side of the roadway.
The driver of the Tacoma pickup, Tabetha Ann Longnecker, 42, of El Paso, Texas, was pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace Donna Smith. No one in the Tacoma pickup was wearing a seatbelt, Baxter said. Police did not know the relationship of the driver and second passenger in the Tacoma pickup.
A passenger in the pickup, Erika Cronier, 20, of Berwick, was taken to Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas, with incapacitating injuries, Baxter said. Another passenger, Tyler Eugene Longnecker, 21, of Berwick, was also transported to Shannon Medical Center with incapacitating injuries, Baxter said.
The driver of the Peterbilt 18-wheeler, German Zapata Sanchez, 58, of Dallas, was wearing a seat belt and was not injured, Baxter said.
Shannon Medical Center Spokeswoman Lyndy Stone said this morning that the hospital did not have anyone with name of Erika Cronier on its hospital census. Stone said she did not have signed consent to give a condition report on Tyler Longnecker.