Warren County Sheriff Investigator Mike Traxler, far left, Vicksburg Police Department Patrolman Bobby Jones and Patrolman Alvin Wells watch as River City Wrecker employee Steven Butler drags a winch down a 25-foot embankment after a one-car accident at about 6 p.m. Tuesday that left a Crowville, La., man dead. He was identified as Alvin Tarver Jr.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The VIcksburg Post)

[5/21/03]A Louisiana man is believed to have died of a heart attack Tuesday evening before his pickup flipped down an embankment and into the Yazoo Diversion Canal.

Warren County Coroner John Thomason said an autopsy will be performed on Alvin R. Tarver Jr., 36, 320 Hewitt Smith Road, Crowville, in Franklin Parish south of Delhi, but he believes the heart attack killed Tarver before his truck flipped near railroad tracks off North Washington Street and landed upside-down in the water.

The accident was reported at about 6 p.m.

Tarver, driving a 1997 Chevrolet 1500 south on North Washington about a mile south of Haining Road, was leaving his job at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge unit on the Vicksburg harbor, Thomason said. He was the only person in the vehicle, Vicksburg Police records show.

A woman who was driving north passed Tarver shortly before he wrecked, Vicksburg Police Patrolman Bobby Jones said. She said he was driving erratically, Jones added.

In her rearview mirror, the witness saw Tarver’s truck flip over the railroad tracks toward the embankment, Jones said.

Patrolman Alvin Wells and Vicksburg Fire Department personnel were among the first to respond to the accident.

“I cut my arm going in through the glass trying to get to him, but there were no signs of life,” Wells said.

Gill First National Funeral Home of Winnsboro, La., is handling arrangements, Thomason said.