CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Aransas Police Department told 3News that accidents on Highway 361 are happening more as the city grows.
For locals and tourists, Port Aransas is a hot spot during this time of the year, which means more traffic on Highway 361.
To get to Port Aransas there's only one way in and out.
"That's kind of the trend. Whenever we do have something, it's a little more severe than a regular car accident," said Lt. James Strokes with Port Aransas PD.
He added that a lot of car accidents that happen on Highway 361 are head on collisions.
One person was killed and another was seriously injured in a head-on crash early Thursday morning near Port Aransas. The Corpus Christi Fire Department, Port Aransas Fire and Nueces County ESD #2 responded to the crash, where the driver of a blue SUV was pronounced dead at the scene.
"This is the second one this morning that we've had in the last few weeks," Strokes said. "We had a head on collision a few weeks ago where one of the occupants we transported to the hospital, the other was okay. Then of course, the fatality we had this morning."
The fatal wreck stopped traffic in both lanes.
"When it happened, when we woke up, we heard the ambulance coming in," said one Waco area tourist. "We weren't what was going on, we thought it was minor, but when we got up and looked out the window, we realized there was more going on than what we saw."
The speed limit on Highway 361 is 60 MPH with one passing lane until motorists travel into Port Aransas.
Strokes said that in some cases drivers are losing patience on the road, which leads to mistakes.
"The biggest contributing factors to accidents that we do see on 361 is speed usually or passing in passing violations where people shouldn't be," Strokes said.
He added that the passengers of both accidents were Coastal Bend locals.
"Over the last several years, we've seen a big change in our community," Stokes said. "There's a lot of growth going on, so there's lot of commuter traffic for people coming into work in the morning and then the afternoon so we're getting a rush hour that we didn't have before."
Stokes said that Highway 361 had work done in 2015 and that there are no current plans to upgrade the highway in the near future.
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