Sunday, April 12, 2015

DEADLY TEXAS ROADS, LEAD THE NATION IN FATALITIES: ANOTHER 5 LIVES GONE, 12 INJURED IN FORT WORTH I-30 FREEWAY MULTI-VEHICLE FIERY CRASHES. 18-WHEELER AGAIN TO BLAME FOR MUCH OF THE CARNAGE






APRIL 12, 2015

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Police said Good Samaritans were among the five people who died and 12 others who were hurt in a fiery wreck on a Fort Worth freeway early Sunday morning.

Investigators said the accident in the westbound lanes of Interstate 30 involved an 18-wheeler and several other vehicles near the Oakland Boulevard exit.

Police spokesman Officer Daniel Segura said the chain of events started with a single-vehicle accident around 2:30 a.m. Other drivers stopped to help.

Then — an 18-wheeler carrying the Sunday edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — crashed into the vehicle involved in the original accident. The truck hit several other cars and people, and the big rig erupted in flames.

MedStar spokesman Matt Zavadsky said four people were pronounced dead at the scene near the Oakland Boulevard exit. Police said a fifth victim died later at a hospital.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office identified two of the dead as:

Veronica Gonzalez, 43, of Fort Worth
Mary Hernandez, 42, of Fort Worth

At least one other person was hospitalized in critical condition, and another suffered serious injuries but is expected to survive.

Zavadsky said 10 other patients had minor injuries. Police said the truck driver was among those hurt, "but he did not appear to have serious injuries," Segura said in a written statement.

Star-Telegram director of operations Paul Keese confirmed that a Ryder truck transporting the newspaper was involved in the crash after it "was already in progress." The Star-Telegram was working to obtain reprints and get them delivered, Keese said.

The westbound lanes of I-30 remained closed to traffic six hours after the 2:30 a.m. crash.
Source: http://www.wfaa.com


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http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2015/03/united-states-still-has-one-of-highest.html

UNITED STATES STILL HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST ROAD ACCIDENT DEATH AND INJURY RATES IN THE WORLD: 34,000 DIE AND 2.5 MILLION INJURED EACH YEAR.

Despite the improvements in road safety, the United States has one of the highest death rates at about 1 person dead per 10,000 people. Unfortunately, only undeveloped countries have higher death rate.

Some states, such as Texas and West Virginia (sorry, WV, despite your tremendous progress in traffic safety, you are still at the top of the worst-death-rate list) have death rates of nearly 1.5 percent, i.e., fifty percent more people die compared to the national death rate.

Approximately 34,000 people are getting killed each year.  In the 1950s and 1960s, about 55,000 people used to die on the roads – so, there has been improvement in the number of dead. 

However, the number of injured is rising.  Roughly 2.5 million are injured (yes, you read it correctly – 2.5 million injured) per year.  That is, 1 percent (1%) of the population that is eligible to drive is injured every year.

It is worse than a war zone out there.  

So, please be safe and be on the lookout for weaving-through-the-traffic drivers, crazy drivers, reckless drivers, sick drivers, medical-condition drivers, sleepy drivers, negligent drivers, stupid drivers, careless drivers, drunk drivers, speeding drivers, drugged drivers, texting drivers, talking-on-the-phone drivers, looking-at-the-GPS drivers, hurry-hurry drivers, tailgating drivers, upset drivers, eating-while-driving drivers, putting-the-lipstick-on-while-driving drivers, elderly drivers, and so on.