An early morning accident has claimed the lives of two people, including former NFL player Michael Jackson who, after retiring from football, also served as mayor of a Louisiana village.
Louisiana State Police Senior Trooper Dustin Dwight says it happened about 1 a.m. Friday on U.S. 51, south of the Village of Tangipahoa, where Jackson held office from 2009-2012.
Dwight says the 48-year-old Jackson, of Tangipahoa, was riding a motorcycle north on U.S. 51 at a high rate of speed, when 20-year-old Destiny Gordon, of Kentwood, Louisiana, backed her car from a parking space across both lanes of the highway into the motorcycle's path. Investigators say because of the motorcycle's speed, it penetrated the driver's side door, killing both Jackson and Gordon.
Jackson, whose full name is Michael Dywane Jackson Dyson, played eight NFL seasons with the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens from 1991-98.
