Police identify driver who died in head-on collision near Ankeny

One driver is dead, a second is critically injured and two passengers are hospitalized following a Friday afternoon head-on collision in rural Polk County near Ankeny.

The crash killed the driver, who was pronounced dead at the accident scene, Lt. Ryan Evans of the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Evans identified the driver as Zackery Brown, 32, of Bondurant.

Deputies believe Brown's car, a Chevy Cruze, hit a Chevy Silverado pickup as he was attempting to pass another vehicle on N.E. 78th Avenue near the intersection with N.E. 38th Street.

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The details of the accident, which happened at about 4:15 p.m., remain under investigation. The Silverado's driver and two passengers, described as under 18, were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. 

The two passengers were considered stable but the pickup driver's condition was described as critical at about 7 p.m. Friday evening, Evans said. Their names were not released as of Saturday afternoon.

There was no evidence at the scene of alcohol impairment by either driver, Evans said in an email Saturday. An autopsy of Brown is pending.

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The traffic death marks Iowa's 98th since the beginning of the year, on pace to exceed the 355 who died on Iowa's roads in 2021, according to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation.

It's the third Iowa traffic fatality in two days, following fatal accidents in two western Iowa counties Thursday, according to police and news reports.

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A 72-year-old Matlock woman died after her car drifted across the center line and hit a semi on Highway 9 near Rock Rapids in northwest Iowa Thursday afternoon, according to an accident report from the Iowa State Patrol.

That evening, a member of a road crew died after being hit by a car near Red Oak, KSOM radio reported.

In that accident, the driver of a vehicle failed to stop at a road construction site and instead hit the flagger holding the stop sign, Montgomery County sheriff's deputies told KSOM.

Daniel Lathrop is a staff writer on the Register's investigative team. Reach him at (319) 244-8873 or dlathrop@dmreg.com. Follow him at @lathropd on Twitter and at facebook.com/IowaGadfly.