Tragedy stuck early New Year’s Day when two men were killed and three others were injured and taken to area hospitals following a wreck Friday around 2:45 a.m, according to police reports.

Robert Eric Garza, 27, Arturo Miguel Luna, 23, and Kenny Wetherholt, 18, were were traveling at a high rate of speed in the 2600 block of Sixth Street when the Dodge Neon they were in struck a Ford F-250 truck ahead of them, authorities said.

Garza, the driver of the Neon, hit the brakes to avoid crashing into the pick-up truck in front of them when the Neon suddenly went out of control and the left side of the vehicle smashed into the truck from behind.

Luna was in the left rear seat while Wetherholt was a

(See Wreck, Page 2A) passenger in the front seat. Wetherholt was transported to Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial and was later released.

The truck’s driver and passenger were taken to Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg with minor injuries and were later released.

Police said they did not know the names of the injured truck driver or the passenger in that vehicle. Garza, a 2000 graduate of King High School and Luna, a 2004 graduate of King High, were both employed with H-E-B. H-E-B put up a wreath outside of the store and associates have been wearing black ribbons in their memory.