Heavy rains contributed to a fatal accident on Highway 71 Tuesday morning. It happened in Bastrop just west of the Colorado River Bridge.

It was a sound loud enough to break through the pouring rain. Kevin Koehler heard the impact inside a feed store along the highway. What he saw outside was hard to piece together.

"I just heard boom. That was it. Just a real loud boom," said Koehler. "It looks pretty bad. I can't even tell what kind of car it was. It just looks like a piece of metal now."

Police say the driver of a car hydroplaned across the median into the path of an 18-wheeler.

"The driver of the sedan was dead at the scene. The driver of the truck apparently isn't injured," said Michal Hubbard, Bastrop PD spokesperson.

Koehler doesn't think the man who died even saw what hit him.

"It was pouring really badly. You couldn't see," Koehler said.

Hubbard says this is a very dangerous time to be on the road.

"The biggest thing [is] when we haven't had rain and we haven't had it in a while. The asphalt gets really slick because it's got all the debris, the oil, the stuff off of traffic," Hubbard said.

With more rain in the forecast, Hubbard encouraged drivers to take it easy.

"The best thing to do is slow down. Be very careful. If at all possible, keep out of congestion so you don't have someone rolling beside you and you're not on the tail end of anyone else," Hubbard said.

The car's driver has been identified as Christian M. Scrogum, 21, of Bastrop. Police say he apparently died on impact.