Who Is Velma Hendrix? A Louisiana Mayor Running For Re-election Dies In Car Wreck On Election Day

Town mayor of Melville, Louisiana, Velma D. Hendrix died in a crash on Election Day at the age of 84. She was running for a second term re-election when she got involved in a two-vehicle collision a little past 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

According to PEOPLE, a preliminary investigation found that Hendrix was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. She was seated in the rear left passenger seat of an Acura RDX when it was hit by a Ram 2500 pickup truck. Louisiana State Police said the driver of the truck failed to yield at the stop sign going into the westbound lanes of US 190 and slammed into the mayor’s vehicle.

The truck driver, identified as Michael Cook, was cruising southbound as Hendrix’s vehicle was moving west. When Cook failed to yield at the highway intersection, he crashed into the passenger side of the mayor’s vehicle. Hendrix’s car had a total of four occupants. The driver and two other passengers were taken to area hospitals and were reported to have sustained injuries ranging from moderate to severe. The mayor was transported to a local hospital in critical condition and later succumbed to her injuries. Cook was not injured despite not wearing a seatbelt.

The tragic incident has Cook cited for failure to yield for a stop sign and driving without a seat belt. Police said he showed no signs of impaired driving nor was he driving under the influence but police are still waiting on the official toxicology reports as the accident is still under investigation.

Hendrix’s death has the town of Melville mourning her untimely demise with locals questioning what this would mean for her and the mayoral race. Unfortunately, another mayoral candidate in Natchitoches, James Carter, also died Monday morning. Such circumstances call for certain protocol that requires the cancellation of the local elections and the qualifying period reopened.

"If no one qualifies then the top vote-getter in the election is declared the mayor, if someone else qualifies then they'll have the election in December on the 10th," the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court announced. The qualifying period will be reopened through Nov. 13, if no one else qualifies, the candidates from Nov. 8 who garners the highest votes will be declared Mayor of Melville.