The Texas Department of Public Safety says four people were injured – two very critically – in a Tuesday morning accident between Jasper and Kirbyville.
DPS Sergeant Shana Clark says emergency crews responded at about 8:30 to the northbound lanes of Highway 96 near County Road 440.
According to Sergeant Clark, a 1996 GMC bucket-truck was stopped on the shoulder of the highway, and 29-year-old Tyler Whitmire, of Brookeland, was driving northbound in a 2008 Chevrolet pickup truck.
Clark said Whitmire went onto the shoulder and hit the back of the stopped vehicle.
Whitmire and the driver of the bucket truck, Aaron Denby, 52, of Kirbyville, both suffered life-threatening injuries and were taken to St Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont.
Two unidentified passengers in the bucket truck were also taken to St Elizabeth with non-life threatening injuries.