By John Howell Sr.

Separate traffic accidents claimed four lives in north Mississippi in less than 72 hours, according to reports from the Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) and from Wells Funeral Home of Batesville.

Three of those lives were lost shortly after midnight Sunday morning.

Kelly Wayne Hudson, 40, was killed in a one-vehicle accident on a county road near Pope Thursday night. He was the husband of  Kay DuBois Hudson and the son of Bobby and Betty Herron Hudson, all of Batesville.

A spokesman for the Panola County Sheriff’s Department had not returned calls with further information about the accident at press time.

Charles Colby Mason, 17, died in a one-car accident reported at 12:31 a.m. Sunday on Highway 51 near Merryhill Ranch Road north of Senatobia, MHP spokesman Sgt. Leslie White said.

Mason’s vehicle was northbound on Highway 51, left the roadway on the right side, traveled down an embankment, re-entered Highway 51 and came to rest on the highway’s left shoulder, the MHP report stated.

A passenger in Mason’s vehicle was injured, he said.

Cynthia Ann Martin Alewine, 51, died in a single-car accident reported at 3:30 a.m. Sunday on Highway 35, south of Batesville near its intersection with Shiloh Road, White said.

Alewine’s southbound vehicle left the left shoulder of Highway 35 and overturned several times before striking trees, the officer said.

A fourth fatality reported to MHP at 2:29 a.m. Sunday involved a two-car crash on Highway 49 near the Coahoma-Tallahatchie County Line, the MHP spokesman said. Earl L. Busby, 41, of Tutwiler died when the southbound vehicle in which he was a passenger collided head-on with a northbound automobile, White said.

See obituaries on page A2 and page A12 of The Panolian.