The Georgia State Patrol’s holiday travel watch period began with three deaths in Middle Georgia.

Two people died in an accident on Post Bridge and Bar Bridge roads in Jasper County shortly after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, but their identities were not immediately released.

Minutes before that accident, a husband and wife from Augusta crashed their Mitsubishi Galant into the side of a semi-truck on U.S. 80 west at the U.S. 441 bypass in Dublin, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley.

Lee Wesley Houston, 72, died at the scene and his wife, Cecelia, was not seriously hurt. She was taken to Fairview Park Hospital to be checked out, Stanley said.

“He was riding down the road with no lights and ran a red light,” Stanley said.

“They were unfamiliar with the area.”

The 102-hour holiday weekend travel period ends midnight Sunday.