Man and woman killed in Beltway collision identified
The man and woman killed in a North Las Vegas three-car wreck Monday have been identified by the Clark County coroner.
Maria Dennis, 48, of Las Vegas was driving a Buick Regal eastbound in the right lane on the northern 215 Beltway when her vehicle and a Lexus crashed into each other head-on, Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Chelsea Stuenkel said.
Dennis had been driving faster than the posted 45-mph speed limit when she traveled out of her lane, overcorrected the Buick and drove into the westbound lanes of traffic, colliding with the Lexus, the highway patrol wrote in a release Tuesday.
The Lexus overturned and landed on its roof in the dirt shoulder right of the roadway. Its driver, Tracy Michael Simpson, 38, of Las Vegas, was killed, the coroner said.
Dennis was taken to University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Simpson died at the scene.
Highway patrol troopers and North Las Vegas fire crews responded to the 5:41 p.m. crash, which happened in the westbound lanes of the Beltway, just east of the Aliante Parkway exit.
A third car, a Chrysler 200, not originally involved in the crash, slammed into the wreckage. The Chrysler's occupants were taken to UMC with minor injuries.
This is the seventh fatal wreck in the highway patrol's jurisdiction this year.
Two fatal wrecks in 2014 and two more in 2015 happened on the same stretch of the Beltway, between Aliante and North Fifth Street, Stuenkel said. NHP investigated four crashes in the same area in January.
Clark County began construction in the area in July to make permanent eastbound lanes and install a concrete barrier rail and high-mast lighting. Construction was expected to end this month, the county said in an email release at the project's start.
County spokesman Dan Kulin said Tuesday the construction won't end until late summer.
Contact Lawren Linehan at llinehan@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lawrenlinehan. Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber
