Nancy Acosta
Nancy Acosta died after allegedly trying to run down her husband and her lover Screenshot from KPRC TV

An American mother of three has died in a road accident after slamming into an oncoming car as she tried to run her cheating husband and his mistress off the road on Thursday afternoon (18 July).

Nancy Acosta, from Houston, Texas, confronted her husband Freddy at home before the accident, giving chase after he drove off in a car with his lover.

Police said she followed the car and began side-swiping it in an attempt to run it off the road before her car swerved into oncoming traffic and was hit by a blue Honda CRV.

She died at the scene while the male driver of the Honda was hospitalised in a critical condition. Mr Acosta and his passenger were not seriously hurt.

"Spouse, ex-spouse getting into an argument or whatever and taking it out on the roadways. It's such sad situation," said Deputy D. Wilkie, of Harris County Police.

"She was reaching speeds pretty high," said Wilkie. "Spinning around out of control and that's when she got hit in the driver's door."

"We feel bad this happened. There's three kids now with no mom," a friend of Mrs Acosta told KHOU news. "She doesn't have any papers. She is a doctor in El Salvador and she left her career to stay with him," the friend added.

Other friends told the station that Mrs Acosta was a loving mother who attended church and had been trapped in an unhappy relationship, in which her husband only came home to shower and eat.