GENTRY — An accident on Fairmount Road, just east of Gentry, resulted in the death of Stacy Nichols, a 30-year-old Gentry woman who had been an employee of the Wooden Spoon Restaurant in Gentry. Several others were injured in the accident which occurred shortly before 6 p.m. on Thursday.
According to Keshia Guyll, spokesperson for the Benton County Sheriff's Office, a vehicle which was northbound on Fairmount Road hit a slick spot and turned sideways in the road and was struck on the driver's side by a southbound vehicle, killing a passenger in the back seat of the northbound vehicle on impact.
The accident occurred just north of the intersection of Jackson Rd., or about a mile south of Arkansas Highway 12.
According to Guyll, there were four people in the northbound vehicle and two people in the southbound vehicle. Another backseat passenger in the northbound vehicle and both the driver and a passenger from the southbound vehicle were transported to Siloam Springs Regional Hospital as a result of their injuries.
The condition of the three injured was not available.
"No drugs or alcohol are suspected," Guyll said.
Light rain was falling at the time of the accident and temperatures were just below freezing. The Eagle Observer was also told by a local resident of work being done on the road in that location earlier in the day and of mud being on the roadway.
Fairmount Road was closed following the accident and a Sheriff's Office reconstruction team was investigating the accident.
A Thursday night post on the Wooden Spoon's Facebook page said: "The Wooden Spoon will be closed all day Friday, January 22nd. We lost one of our Spoon family, Stacy Nichols, to a tragic car accident tonight. Our hearts are broken."