One Dead After Car Smashes Into Secret Service Vehicle

A car carrying four on-duty Secret Service agents was involved in a head-on collision in New Hampshire that killed the driver of the other car, police said Wednesday. The accident happened about 7pm Tuesday in Wakefield, near the Maine state line. The agents were in a Ford Taurus heading south on Route 16 when a northbound Mercury Sable with three people inside crossed over a double yellow solid line and hit the Taurus head-on, say police. The Sable driver, 45-year-old Bruce Danforth, died. A Secret Service spokeswoman said the agents sustained serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. Their names have not been released.

The passengers in Danforth's car, Kristina Buswell, 21, and Natasha Meroski, 35, were taken to separate hospitals. Their conditions weren't known. Authorities have not mentioned any factors that may have contributed to the accident, but New Hampshire had its first major snowstorm of the season Tuesday and roads were covered with a mixture of snow, sleet, and ice. It wasn't immediately known in what capacity the agents were working, but Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was campaigning in a town hall meeting Tuesday night in Berlin, north of Wakefield. New Hampshire has the first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Feb. 9, and some candidates have been traveling with Secret Service agents. (More Secret Service stories.)