FAILURE TO SLOW
DOWN IN HEAVY TRAFFIC AND AROUND CRASH SCENES: TWO KILLED IN I-20 WRECK IN
GREGG COUNTY, TEXAS. THE MEN’S TRUCK
RAMMED INTO THE BACK OF A STOPPED TRACTOR-TRAILER.
More than 12 hours after the first of two crashes that
left two people dead Friday morning, westbound lanes of Interstate 20 in Gregg
County were opened to traffic.
Two men were killed in a crash at about 7:30 a.m. Friday
after an earlier wreck slowed traffic, and the men’s truck rammed into the back
of a stopped tractor-trailer, according to Trooper James Ammons with the Texas
Department of Public Safety.
The crash occurred just east of Texas 31 heading
westbound on I-20, and the men, who were in a box truck, were likely killed
instantly from the force of the collision, Ammons said.
“It was an exceptionally hard impact,” he said.
Ammons said the truck was registered out of Chihuahua,
Mexico. Only one ID was found — for a man in his 30s or 40s from Mexico —
inside the vehicle.
Two people were in the tractor-trailer that was struck,
and one was taken to Longview Regional Medical Center, Ammons said.
The box truck, which was crumpled almost beyond
recognition, was carrying flat-screen televisions that were shattered and
strewn along the road after the wreck.
About 9:30 a.m. Friday, crews remained at work loading
dozens of busted TVs onto the back of flat-bed tow trucks. Plastic shards were
swept to the shoulder.
Ammons said the earlier crash about 1 a.m. on I-20 close
to Texas 135 shut down the westbound lanes and caused traffic to be diverted.
That crash involved two tractor-trailers that collided
and caught on fire, officials said. Each was carrying food, and crews worked in
the early morning hours to clean up lunch meat and frozen vegetables that
spilled across the highway.
No one was injured in that wreck, the Department of
Public Safety said.
Ammons said the fatal crash occurred in the wake of that
delay, when the box truck plowed into the back of a stopped UPS
tractor-trailer. The box truck’s front bumper plowed almost to the back axle of
the other truck, he said.
“Speed was certainly a factor,” he said.
Gregg County Justice of the Peace Talyna Carlson said
she pronounced the two men dead at 9:18 a.m.
I-20 westbound was shut down for hours early Friday as a
result of the two crashes, with traffic in the area backed up for several
miles.
The interstate was reopened in the area of the fatal crash
about 11:30 a.m.
The highway was fully reopened about 5:30 p.m.
Ammons said the wreck should be a reminder to everyone
to slow down in heavy traffic and around crash scenes.