Two wrecks in Durant lead to one fatality

DURANT, Okla. (KXII) -- Police said a series of events led to the death of a man on Highway 69/75 early Monday morning.

We're told a semi-truck headed south on Highway 69/75 hit the back of a Ford F-350 hauling a flatbed trailer driving east on Choctaw Road just after 1:30 AM. The semi and the trailer flipped on their sides across the northbound lanes.

The driver of the F-350 from the first wreck was flown to Plano in serious condition.

An hour later, just north of the first accident, another semi-truck rear-ended a car traveling southbound, pushing it into yet another semi in front of the car.

The driver of that car 61-year-old Ali Mahdavi of Heath, Texas, died at the scene.

"I hate to use the word rubberneckers but people that want to slow down for no reason, to see what's going on,” Lt. Chris Marcy said. “They see emergency vehicles, they see a helicopter landing."

Lt. Chris Marcy said while the causes of both crashes are under investigation, the slowdown in traffic from the first crash was definitely a factor in the second.

"Cell phone records, blood work,” Marcy said. “It's going to be unfortunately a time consuming process but once we have all that information gathered we will submit that to the district attorney to see if any kind of pending charges can be made."

Both northbound lanes of the highway were shut down for several hours while HAZMAT crews cleaned up the diesel.

"We've got a couple of hundred gallons of diesel that's scattered across four lanes of highway,” A Clean Environment CEO Lonnie Edwards said.

All lanes of traffic are now open on the highway but drivers are encouraged to drive slow and pay attention while workers continue to clean up the mess.

Edwards said he doesn’t expect the spills from either accident to have a negative impact on the environment.