Steven Pruitt, 73, of Huntington was killed after driving a 2008 Lexus ES the wrong way into the northbound lanes of Interstate 540 at Exit 10 in Fort Smith, where his vehicle slammed head-on into a Chevrolet Impala carrying two Fort Smith residents. Both occupants of the Impala, driver Ismael Guzman, 26, and passenger Anya Sifuentes, 25, were injured and hospitalized. Pruitt did not survive the collision.
According to a report from nwaonline.com, Pruitt was driving south when his Lexus entered the northbound lanes the wrong way at Exit 10, then continued against traffic until it struck Guzman's 2018 Chevrolet Impala head-on. Exit 10 connects I-540 to West Phoenix Avenue and Old Greenwood Road in Fort Smith, the outlet reported. Guzman and Sifuentes were both taken to Mercy Hospital Fort Smith for treatment, per the same report.
Accounts of the exact crash time differ. 5newsonline.com, citing the Arkansas State Police, reported the crash happened around 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, while nwaonline.com put the time at 1:28 p.m. that same afternoon. 4029tv.com reported the crashes were called in shortly after 1:35 p.m. The trooper investigating the wreck reported that weather conditions were clear and the roadway was dry at the time, according to nwaonline.com.
A Marine Veteran Laid to Rest
Pruitt was a longtime resident of Huntington and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, having served roughly 10 years, the outlet's report noted. He was buried at Fort Smith National Cemetery with military honors on Monday, according to the same account.
The crash briefly snarled traffic on one of Fort Smith's busiest highway corridors. It came about a week before another injury crash shut down all northbound lanes of I-540 near the Kelley Highway exit on Sept. 25, according to localaccidentreports.com. In that incident, at least one injury was reported, though the extent of the harm was not made public, and the number of vehicles involved and the cause of the crash remained unknown at the time of publication, per the same report.
Echoes of a Deadly 2024 Wrong-Way Case
Wrong-way crashes have drawn scrutiny elsewhere in Arkansas. In a separate case from September 2024, Anthony B. Smith drove a BMW 325 head-on into Clifford James Griffin's Jeep on Interstate 430 near Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock, killing Griffin, according to katv.com. During the pursuit that followed, Smith drove the wrong way down I-30, I-430 and an exit ramp at speeds exceeding 100 mph through a construction zone, the station reported; Smith was later sentenced to 25 years in prison in that case.
No cause has been established for why Pruitt's vehicle entered the interstate traveling against traffic on Sept. 17. An Arkansas State Police fatal crash summary about Pruitt’s crash had been released publicly. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the wreck remains tied to the account provided by nwaonline.com and corroborating local reports.
