Two separate crashes in southwest Iowa on Tuesday claimed two lives and left at least two people seriously hurt. A crash involving three motorcycles and an SUV Tuesday evening north of Council Bluffs killed one person and critically injured two others.

Authorities say the head-on crash happened between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. on Old Lincoln Highway. Details are sketchy, but witnesses reported that as three motorcycles were heading south on the two-lane highway, they collided with another motorcycle carrying two people traveling north.

One of the victims, a male who was wearing his helmet, died at the scene. Reports indicate his cycle was traveling at a high rate of speed. Two other motorcyclists were transported in critical condition to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A fourth person on one of the cycles and the driver of the SUV were not hurt.

The accident remained under investigation late Tuesday night. And, the Iowa State Patrol says a Taylor County man died Tuesday evening after the van he was driving collided with a semi in southwestern Union County. 79-year old Leonard Page, of Lenox, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on Highway 25, northeast of Lenox.

Officials say Page was traveling southbound at around 5:15-p.m, when for reasons unknown, the van he was driving crossed the center line of the road and collided head-on with a northbound semi by 59-year old David Werner, of Mason City. The accident remains under investigation.

By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic