A second victim has died following a fatal crash in Letcher County over the weekend.
A family member and obituary information has confirmed that 90-year-old Kathleen Tackett, of Booker Fork, in Pike County, died at Pikeville Medical Center. Tackett was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a two-vehicle crash at Payne Gap, near Jenkins, in Letcher County Saturday afternoon. Another passenger in the vehicle, 61-year-old Barbara Newsome, of Pikeville, dies Saturday shortly after the crash.
37-year-old Travis Franklin Helbert, of Appalachia, Virginia, has been charged in the crash. Helbert remains lodged in the Letcher County Jail on charges of second-offense DUI and second-degree manslaughter in relation to Newsome’s death. He also currently faces two charges of first-degree assault in relation to injuries suffered by Tackett and 66-year-old Judy Kiser, the driver of the vehicle in which Newsome and Tackett were passengers, as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia charges.
According to Kentucky State Police, Helbert was traveling on U.S. 119 during rainy conditions in his Chevrolet pickup truck towing a horse trailer and crossed into the path of Kiser’s Toyota Yaris and the vehicles collided. Newsome was pronounced dead at Whitesburg ARH Hospital. Tackett and Kiser were transported to Whitesburg ARH before being taken by ambulance to Pikeville Medical Center.
Helbert is being held in the Letcher County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond.
