A two-vehicle car accident on Highway 550 claimed the life of aBrookhaven man Friday evening, officials said.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Rusty Boydsaid Charles E. Johnson, 48, of 2482 Jackson-Liberty Drive, waspronounced dead at King’s Daughters Medical Center after he wastransported from the scene of the accident, which took place at6:24 p.m. almost half a mile west of California Road.

Lincoln County Deputy Coroner John Riggs said Johnson waspronounced at around 7 p.m., roughly 15 minutes after he arrived.Riggs said an autopsy was done Saturday morning.

“We did send him to the crime lab because he was the driver andthat’s procedure,” Riggs said. “The official cause of death won’tbe back until Monday.”

Boyd said Johnson’s 1979 Cadillac Deville and another vehicledriven by a witness were both eastbound on Highway 550 when a 2003Jeep driven by 15-year-old Hayden Hux, of 813 Mt. Zion Road inWesson, came around a curve in the wrong lane.

“According to witnesses, the Jeep came around the curve on thewrong side of the road, and the witness ran off the road to avoid acollision,” Boyd said. “The oncoming Jeep hit the vehicle behindhim.”

Hux was ejected from the Jeep and suffered moderate injuries, Boydsaid, while his passenter, Dustin W. Smith, 22, of 2778 Loyd StarLane, was also ejected and sustained severe injuries.

Hux was treated and released at King’s Daughters Medical Center.Smith was listed in fair condition at the University of MississippiMedical Center in Jackson Saturday.

Riggs said Johnson’s arrangements, which are incomplete, will behandled by Williams Mortuary.