Emergency personnel (top) work to free Brownsboro High School senior Alex Conway from her car following a collision with an 18-wheeler at the intersection of State Highway 31 and Farm-to-Market Road 314 on Monday. She is airlifted (above) to East Texas Medical Center. A Brownsboro High School student was “in very critical condition” Tuesday after the car she was driving collided with an 18-wheeler at the intersection of State Highway 31 and Farm-to- Market Road 314 less than a day earlier, an East Texas Medical Center official said.

Alex Conway, 18, a senior volleyball player for the Bearettes, was in a coma, a Brownsboro Independent School District administrator told The Statesman.

About 1:20 p.m. on Monday, the squeal of brakes followed by the large “boom” of a collision drew residents and some high-school students to the scene. Witnesses identified the driver of the car as Conway. She was airlifted to ETMC around 2.

Loyd Cook Photos Scott Mynetti of the Brownsboro Police Department said Monday the 18-wheeler was driven by Michael Dean, 42, of Lockesburg, Ark. He declined to release further information.

Conway was driving a late-model Chevrolet Camaro.

According to a press release from the Police Department, she was on the south side of the intersection facing north at the traffic signal when the eastbound 18-wheeler hit Conway’s car near the driver’s door, propelling it into a spin and then into the front edge of the parking lot of Kidd Jones at the southeast corner of the intersection.

After hitting the car, the truck slid another 80 to 100 yards east on State Highway 31, and across all lanes of traffi c, before mounting a guard rail on the north side of the highway and flipping upside down into a ditch.

The Brownsboro Volunteer Fire Department, Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Henderson County Sheriff’s Department responded.

An 18-wheeler driven by Michael Dean, 42, of Lockesburg, Ark., rests upside down on State Highway 31 after it collided with a car driven by Brownsboro High School senior Alex Conway on Monday near the intersection of Farm-to- Market Road 314. Loyd Cook Photo Traffic was narrowed to one lane in each direction for a few hours while emergency personnel cleaned up the scene.

At times, vehicles were backed up by as much as a quarter mile in each direction.
Conway