PARIS, TX (06/09/2015) — Mendy Dobbs Williams, 40, was killed, and her 14-year-old son was injured in a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of Highway 82 and County Road 43900 on Tuesday night.
UPDATE: Audy Tankersley, the at-fault driver in this accident, has now been charged with intoxication manslaughter.
According to police, 40-year-old Mendy Dobbs Williams was killed on Tuesday evening following a two-vehicle collision on Highway 82 at County Road 43900 in Lamar County, Texas.
Mark Tackett, Public Information Officer with the Texas Department of Safety, stated that 61-year-old Audy Kevin Tankersley caused two separate accidents, miles apart, along Highway 82. According to Tackett, the first incident occurred in the parking lot of the Sun Valley Liquor Store where he struck a car and fled the scene. Minutes later and just two miles away, Tankersley was involved in a second accident on Highway 82 which killed Mendy Williams.
The Texas Department of Public Safety stated that the second accident occurred when Tankersley, who was traveling eastbound on Highway 82 in his Dodge half-ton pickup truck, tried to turn north onto County Road 43900 and broadsided the vehicle Williams was riding in (which was traveling westbound on Highway 82).
Williams was taken to Paris Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at around 7:30 p.m.; her 14-year-old son was also injured in the wreck. Williams’ other passengers included her husband, and two of her son’s friends, however, it is unknown if they were injured in the accident.
Tankersley was flown to Medical Center of Plano for treatment and has since been released.
Texas DPS troopers stated that Tankersley was arrested in Plano, Texas. It was reported that alcohol is suspected to have played a role in the accident, and Tankersley could be facing additional charges pending blood test results.
