Traffic fatality shuts down river bottoms

Traffic came to a standstill Tuesday morning on US HWY 90 in the river bottoms between Dayton and Liberty following a fatality accident.

According to Dayton PD Lt. Eric L. Ibarra, a collision involving a construction vehicle utilized by the Texas Department of Transportation and an Acura SUV at approximately 9:35 am resulted in a single fatality.

“The TX DOT construction vehicle was traveling westbound in the right-hand lane when it was struck from behind by the SUV. The crash caused traffic westbound to be shut down for several hours,” said Ibarra in a statement.

The Acura was driven and solely occupied by Rosendo Varela, 23, and he was pronounced dead at the scene by Liberty County Justice of the Peace Pct. 4 Larry Wilburn.

The case is being investigated by the Dayton Police Department, assisted by the Texas Department of Public Safety.  

This is the second fatality accident in just over a week in the river bottoms, following the tragic accident involving a wrong-way driver that killed four in Liberty just after midnight on Saturday, July 16.