2 killed in wrong-way crash

Two people died early this morning when an SUV going the wrong way on the North Freeway hit a box truck head-on. The accident happened around 3:15 a.m. near I-45 and Little York; according to police, a Ford Explorer was heading south in the northbound lanes of the freeway when it struck a small Isuzu truck at high speed. "The speedometer of the Ford Explorer was stuck at 75 when we got there," HPD accident investigator M.E. Wick told the Chronicle.

Police had gotten a report about the Explorer going the wrong way before the accident, but couldn't do anything before the collision happened. The driver of the Explorer died at the scene — KHOU reports that the driver was ejected from the vehicle — and the driver of the truck, a 23-year-old from Magnolia, died later at Ben Taub. The truck's passenger is in critical condition at Ben Taub, the Chron reports.

The truck driver and passenger were reportedly headed home after working on a cell phone tower. They had dropped their employer off at home a few minutes before the crash.