The calamity began when a car driven by 37-year-old Julio C. Montoya of Irving, Texas was traveling on the wrong side of the interstate, east in the westbound lanes.

He then hit another car head on. One of the victims in that wreck was lying in the roadway and was run over and killed by a second car. Meanwhile, a tractor-trailer rig plowed into the car that had hit the woman lying in the roadway.

Both vehicles in that third accident burned.

The two fatalities were identified as 50-year-old Sharon K. White of Houston, Texas. She was the driver of the car that was first struck by Julio Montoya as he drove on the wrong side of the roadway. Also killed was a passenger in White’s car, 45-year-old Debbie Bivins, also of Houston Texas.

The semi tractor-trailer rig that drove into the crash scene caught fire and was a total loss. The truck fire also set fire to the car carrying the Texas women.

The westbound lanes of I-10 were closed for ten hours before cleanup of the interstate was finished.

Julio Montoya, the man driving on the wrong side of the road, had his drivers license suspected only two months ago for DUI.

He was treated for minor injures and then booked by troopers into the Walton County Jail in Defuniak Springs on a number of charges including a double count of DUI Manslaughter and a variety of traffic charges.