Man killed in crash on U.S. 95 involving driver going wrong way

A 45-year-old Las Vegas man died after the truck he was driving crashed into a car that was going the wrong way on U.S. Highway 95 near Sky Pointe Drive about 12:57 a.m. Wednesday.

William Jay Harris was northbound on the highway south of Centennial Parkway when he collided head-on with a 2001 Acura that was southbound in a northbound lane. The Acura was being driven by a 20-year-old woman whose name had yet to be released Thursday by the Nevada Highway Patrol's Southern Command.

She had veered into the center median to avoid upcoming traffic and lost control of her vehicle, said Trooper Kevin Honea, spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol. The car rotated and re-entered the northbound lane of the highway, directly in Harris' path.

Harris was taken to University Medical Center where he died from injures sustained in the crash. The female driver also was transported to the hospital with injuries that Honea categorized as not life-threatening.

Officers still were investigating the crash and had not yet determined whether alcohol or drugs played a role in it, Honea said.

As of Wednesday evening, the Nevada Highway Patrol had logged 80 traffic deaths on state roadways in Southern Nevada this year, 17 fewer than in the same period of last year, Honea said.

There have been six crashes this year in which a driver was going the wrong way on a highway, and three people were killed in those wrecks, Honea said.