Woman killed in accident

Friday, Jan. 2, 2004 | 10:30 a.m.

A woman was killed and a man suffered serious head injuries in two traffic accidents that occurred within minutes of each other this morning, police said.

About 6:30 a.m., a 47-year-old woman was killed when she crashed her car into a utility pole on Smoke Ranch Road at Rancho Drive in North Las Vegas, police said.

The woman was heading east on Smoke Ranch. When she passed through the Rancho intersection, her vehicle hit the median and struck a Nevada power fence post on the northeast corner, North Las Vegas Police spokesman Justin Roberts said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her name was not available this morning.

Less than 10 minutes after that accident, the driver of a pickup truck sustained serious head injuries about 6:30 a.m. when his vehicle rolled over at the Jean Dry Lake off Las Vegas Boulevard about 25 miles south of Las Vegas, Metro police said.

Emergency radio channel broadcasts said the man had been ejected in the rollover. Mercy Air Ambulance picked up and flew the driver, a man believed to be in his 40s, to University Medical Center's trauma unit, Lt. Ben Kim said.

Police did not yet know why the truck rolled over.