{"id":207947,"date":"2026-03-17T06:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207947\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:53:14","slug":"north-texas-firefighter-wife-son-among-4-killed-in-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207947\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas firefighter, wife, son among 4 killed in crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cooper<\/p>\n

Cooper and Jennifer Bailey and their son Hudson died in an SUV crash in Cooke County on March 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

Family photo<\/p>\n

Two sport utility vehicles slammed into each other on Saturday night in Cooke County when the driver of one passed a third vehicle, killing a couple and their young son, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The driver of the passing vehicle, a Kia, also died in the crash in a no-passing zone on FM 51 near County Road 383 in Gainesville, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

Cooper and Jennifer Bailey and their son Hudson died in the collision, according to Wise County Emergency Services District 3. Cooper Bailey was a city of Paradise firefighter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Kia was traveling south on FM 51 when its driver passed and collided head-on about 8:15 p.m. with the Baileys\u2019 Nissan, according to DPS. The Nissan caught on fire.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s other child was taken in a helicopter to a Fort Worth hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to share that their young daughter Lilah survived and is currently receiving care at Cook Children\u2019s Medical Center, supported by her grandparents,\u201d according to an emergency services district social media post.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirefighter Bailey was a dedicated member of this department, and his loss is felt deeply by us all,\u201d the district wrote in the post.<\/p>\n

A fundraiser for the family has been organized by the Butterfly Bridge Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 5:16 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Emerson Clarridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper and Jennifer Bailey and their son Hudson died in an SUV crash in Cooke County on March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81591,81594,81593,81592,27,45559,29,28],"class_list":["post-207947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-cooke-county-collision","tag-crash-deaths","tag-paradise-firefighter","tag-passing-zone","tag-texas","tag-texas-crash","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}