MIDDLESEX -- A Clayton man died Tuesday after his car collided head on with a small pickup truck in Johnston County, the State Highway Patrol reported today.

The collision occurred just after 1 p.m. on N.C. 42 in Johnston County, about eight miles south of Middlesex, the patrol spokesman said.

The victim, Rajkumar Nagamuthu, 39, lost control of the Toyota he was driving.

The car swerved into the path of a white Nissan truck, a patrol spokesman said this morning. The condition of the Nissan driver was not available.

Nagamuthu's Toyota was traveling in the westbound lane of N.C. 42 when the vehicle ran off the right side of the road.

The investigating state trooper reported that Nagamuthu overcorrected the Toyota, causing the car to cross the center line and into the path of the Nissan truck that was traveling in the eastbound lane.

Nagamuthu was pronounced dead at the scene, the spokesman reported.