All lanes of I-30 at Dalrock open after pileup over Lake Ray Hubbard

ROWLETT –– Dallas police say a 23-year-old man was arrested for intoxication assault in connection with a 13-vehicle pileup that shuttered Interstate 30 in both directions over Lake Ray Hubbard before dawn Friday.

Christopher Anthony Sosa was arrested and charged Friday morning, according to a police spokesperson. He was booked into the Dallas County Jail. It's not clear whether Sosa caused the accident –– heavy fog is also suspected to have played a role.

At about 7:50 p.m., more than 16 hours after the crash, all lanes at Dalrock Road were reopened.

While the accident spurred traffic woes for drivers, it also created a problem for some area businesses.

"Everybody nowadays is in a hurry to get somewhere," said Brian Vosburg, an employee at Parkway Car Care, which is located along Highway 66. "And when you get stuck in something like that there are no words to describe it."

Vosburg said on average he works on 12 to 18 vehicles a day. Friday, he worked on three.

The owner of the business said their supplier of vehicle parts was stuck in traffic, which put the business two days behind.

"If I'm not turning wrenches working on cars, I'm not making a whole lot of money," Vosburg said.

TxDOT sent crews to help control traffic on either side of Lake Ray Hubbard and repair the 500 feet of concrete median barrier that was damaged in the wreck, said Tony Hartzle, department spokesman.

“Both directions are going to be shut down for multiple hours; motorists need to find an alternate route around this area just to stay away,” Hartzle said in the midst of the cleanup. “The detours are going to be fairly substantial for the next couple of hours.”

As dawn broke over the lake, Dallas police Sgt. David Conley said the wreck involved six 18-wheelers and seven cars. A total of eight people were taken to Baylor Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, said Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans.

One of the 18-wheelers visibly jack-knifed into the median before coming to a stop. A trail of debris was scattered about the four-lane highway behind it. Fog was a likely culprit in the collision, Hartzle said. Not long before the crash, The National Weather Service issued a Dense Fog Advisory that expired at 9 a.m. as visibility in some areas dipped to below a quarter of a mile. The NWS advises drivers to slow down and use their low-beam headlights when driving through fog.

Eastbound drivers were forced to take the Zion Road exit while those headed west took the Ridge Road exit. Both were significantly backed up at 6 a.m., as reported by News 8's Brian Glenn.

Evans said units were called at 3:30 a.m. to help. Hazardous materials crews were on-scene cleaning up vehicle fluids. No one had to be extricated from a vehicle by Dallas Fire-Rescue, Evans said.

A Rockwall Police Department dispatcher says a few units assisted with blocking off the Dalrock Road exit but had no additional information. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Garland Police Department are also helping investigate.

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Source: WFAA (Goodman, 1/10)

Fiery 18-Wheeler Crash Shuts Down North Texas Highway

FORNEY – It’s a Friday evening, rush hour traffic nightmare for drivers trying to get through Forney.

The eastbound side of the US 80 Bridge, just west of FM 460, had to be closed after an 18-wheeler crashed, overturned and caught fire.

Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spokesman Tony Hartzel said the traffic situation is even worse because the area is so rural. “And there are no frontage roads in that area, so there are no options for travelers to go around in that immediate area,” he said. “So what we’re asking people to do is consider taking I-20 or I-30 as alternate routes.”

The cab of the truck appeared to be on fire as Chopper 11 flew overhead. Officials with the Forney Police Department, from several surrounding cities, and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputies all responded to the crash and subsequent traffic tie-up.

Hartzel said bridge inspectors have been called to the scene. “The truck overturned and caught fire just before FM 460 and it is on a bridge over one of the Trinity River relief routes, some of the water crossings for the Trinity.”

Shortly after the crash a CareFlite medical helicopter transported a man to Parkland Medical Center. It isn’t known if that man was the truck driver.

Officials gave no estimate on how long the highway would be closed.

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Source: CBS-DFW (AP, 8/02)

Ban expanding in North Texas on trucks in left lanes

FORT WORTH — Trucks are being forced out of the left lanes on more North Texas highways.

Beginning this summer, the Texas Transportation Department plans to nearly double the number of highway miles in Dallas-Fort Worth where vehicles with three or more axles are banned from the left lane.

Trucks are already prohibited in the fast lane of Interstates 20, 30 and 45 in the Metroplex. And over several months, state officials plan to expand the ban to include many other freeways, department spokeswoman Michelle Releford said.

Among the places where a new left-lane ban is planned: Interstate 35W in Fort Worth from 28th Street to the Tarrant-Johnson county line; Texas 121 “Airport Freeway” from downtown Fort Worth to East Loop 820 near Richland Hills; Loop 820 from Interstate 30 in west Fort Worth to Blue Mound Road; and Texas 360 from Texas 183 to I-20 in Arlington.

Requiring big rigs to stay on the right side of the road is extremely popular among motorists.

“Trucks have no business in the far left lane,” Richard Kevin Hager of Granbury said. “It’s already working great in the areas that have it, when it is enforced. Not only safer for everybody but definitely improves traffic flow.”

Pending approval from the Texas Transportation Commission in July, signs with messages such as “No trucks, left lane” will be installed on the selected roads. The signs will start going up in the Dallas area in late summer, and in the Fort Worth area in the fall, said Andy Oberlander, a traffic engineering supervisor with the department.

Once the signs are up, the ban will be in place, and trucks caught in the left lane will be subject to a police citation, Oberlander said.

Surveys show that roughly 80 percent of motorists approve of the restriction, state officials say.

“No vehicle should be allowed in the far left lane that is not going the maximum speed limit,” Gary Burris of Arlington said.

In North Texas, regional transportation officials also say they have some data to show that keeping big rigs out of the left lane reduces accidents, improves overall traffic speeds and reduces auto emissions.

Truckers aren’t bad guys.

But some truck drivers question the claims about the benefits of such bans.

“Our great government has made trucks into bad guys,” said Robert Duncan of Terrell, a trucker for 14 years. Duncan noted that trucks’ speeds can vary greatly, with some traveling no more than 62 mph and others hauling at 75 mph — and he said faster trucks need the ability to “get past the rolling road block” of slower traffic.

Texas law does allow trucks to use the left lane temporarily for passing.

Banning trucks from the left lane penalizes some of the most professional, experienced drivers on the road, said John Esparza, president of the Austin-based Texas Motor Transportation Association. Instead, he said, Texas would be better served by going after drivers who are inattentive, overly aggressive or impaired by alcohol.

Trucks were involved in 13 percent of Texas traffic fatalities last year, Esparza said. But he said that in 84 percent of those cases the driver of a two-axle vehicle, not a trucker, was at fault.

Plus, he said, the policy creates congestion on the outside lanes of highways.

“If you limit trucks to the right lane, you are putting folks entering the freeway into more jeopardy,” Esparza said.

History

The effort to keep 18-wheelers out of the fast lane dates from 2005 in the Metroplex. That’s when the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the regional transportation planning agency, enacted temporary restrictions on portions of I-30 in Fort Worth-Arlington and I-20 in Dallas.

During the test period of approximately five months, crashes on I-30 in Tarrant County fell nearly 24 percent, according to the council of governments. With a left-lane ban, wrecks averaged 1.27 wrecks per day, down from 1.67 before.

Also on I-30, average speeds for all traffic improved 0.88 mph in the left lane, 0.56 mph in the center lane and 0.50 in the right lane, according to the research.

After those results were announced in 2006, the temporary bans were made permanent.

In 2009, the state Transportation Commission approved expanding them to include most of I-20, I-30 and I-45 in Dallas-Fort Worth.

It’s part of a statewide trend. Such bans have been approved in many cities in recent years. On I-35, for example, one extends from Georgetown all the way through the Austin area.

In North Texas, roads that meet certain criteria — for example, roads with at least three main lanes in each direction, but not left-lane exits — are considered candidates for the ban.

“Three lanes or more — keep out!” David Benedetto of Grapevine said.

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Source: Star-Telegram (AP, 6/3)

Road accidents rise as rainfall sets records

In one of at least two weather-related crashes in the area, a Midland man was transported to Midland Memorial Hospital with minor injuries after a wreck on State Highway 349.

Martin County DPS responded to the accident at about 11:40 a.m. on State Highway 349.

Midlander Michael Wade was driving a white pickup pulling a trailer with a backhoe south on Highway 349. A dump truck, also pulling a backhoe, was traveling south behind an SUV that was following the pickup, said Sean Baxter, DPS public information officer.

The pickup hydroplaned and veered right off the highway and then back onto the road. When the pickup came back across the highway, the dump truck hit the pickup’s trailer, he said.

Pickup passenger Mitchell Dinsmorre, of Midland, was transported to MMH with minor injuries. He was treated and released, Baxter said.

The SUV was not involved in the crash.

Citations were not issued because of the weather conditions that contributed to the crash, but DPS is continuing to investigate, he said.

Meanwhile, no one was reported injured Wednesday afternoon after an 18-wheeler hydroplaned into a light pole on Loop 250.

Midland police responded to the crash at about 1:34 p.m. at the 1000 block of West Loop 250 North near the “A” Street overpass.

The 18-wheeler was eastbound on the loop when the vehicle began drifting and jackknifed into a light pole in the median, said an officer at the scene.

The wreck caused significant traffic delays for at least two hours. Again, citations were not issued because of the weather conditions.

Later that afternoon, a two-vehicle crash occurred near the intersection of West Scharbauer Drive and North I Street.

Midland police who responded to the crash at about 3:51 p.m. found an SUV had flipped over. Officers determined that a car traveling northbound on I Street collided with the SUV that was westbound on Scharbauer Drive.

No one was injured, said an officer at the scene. The driver of the Lexus was cited for failure to yield right of way.

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Source: MyWestTexas (White, 1/9)

Heavier limits weighed for big rigs on Texas highways

IRVING - Heavier trucks could soon be allowed on Texas highways as the state prepares for a potentially massive increase in freight shipments across its roadways caused by the expansion of the Panama Canal.

State officials plan to ask federal officials as well as state legislators permission to allow trucks with six axles weighing up to 97,000 pounds on Interstate 45 from Houston to North Texas, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday. The current truck weight limit is generally 80,000 pounds on vehicles with five axles, although trucks heavier than that can -- and frequently do -- legally roll on Texas highways if they first pay for overweight permits.

Speaking to a panel at the 15th annual Transportation and Infrastructure Summit in Irving, Jenkins said Texas officials also would seek higher truck weights on a planned outer loop around Dallas and Fort Worth known as Loop 9 - a project that is expected to be built in the Metroplex over roughly the next 20 years. Parts of the loop are already being built in the eastern part of the region.

The idea would be to take advantage of larger container ships moving through the Panama Canal beginning in August 2014, and have those ships make call at ports in Texas instead of their traditional destinations, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.

"When the new Panama Canal opens up, somebody's going to be a winner and somebody's going to not be a winner," Jenkins said. "We're already behind."

Working together

Jenkins said he and Texas Department of Transportation executive director Phil Wilson had already broached the subject of designating I-45 as a heavy-truck corridor with their counterparts in Washington, in a test project of sorts. However, he said later, no official decision had been made about the test project, and no timetable was set for possibly rolling out the heavier trucks.

State lawmakers also might be asked to approve the higher weight limits during the next regular session that begins in January in Austin, Wilson and Jenkins said.

Taking advantage of increased freight traffic coming to through Texas from the Panama Canal fits in with the state's mission of creating jobs and expanding economic development in and around ports, Wilson, who also spokes at the summit, said later in the day.

"I-45 and Loop 9 is an opportunity to get this state and the Panama Canal working together," Wilson said. "Obviously Dallas-Fort Worth and the Metroplex is going to be a key part of the distribution system. Load limits is something we're exploring right now and would most likely require a federal fix and action from the state Legislature as well."

The Panama Canal is undergoing its biggest expansion since it was completed in 1914. It currently can handle ships up to 106 feet wide, 965 feet long and 39 feet deep, but after expansion will be able to handle ships up to 161 feet wide, 1,200 feet long and 49 feet deep.

Once expansion is complete, ships will be able to carry nearly triple their previous loads. But experts are debating whether those ships will stop in Texas, or instead stick with their traditional stops in the east or west coasts.

Level playing field

Not everyone agrees that canal expansion will be a major benefit for the Gulf Coast. Officials at Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway, for example, believe the impact will be minimal because of time factors. Given the United States' current infrastructure, a shipment going through the canal and arriving at Houston would take 10 days to two weeks longer to reach its destination than a shipment arriving at a West Coast seaport with a rail connection, one BNSF official has said.

A deep-water port is lacking on the U.S. southern shores, with few options for shippers between Los Angeles and Norfolk, Va. The Port of Houston, for example, plans to deepen its berths in front of its container terminals to 45 feet by 2014.

The state transportation department has created a canal stakeholder working group to help with the planning. The group includes BNSF, the Texas Association of Manufacturers, Texas Farm Bureau and Texas Motor Transportation Association.

Although allowing heavier trucks on I-45 could provide an advantage to the Port of Houston -- possibly making it the port of choice for shippers seeking to get their goods to the central U.S. -- other Texas officials have said that any action taken by the state in response to Panama Canal expansion should create a fair competitive environment for all state ports.

"Texas doesn't need to be picking between Corpus Christi and Houston," Texas Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows of Fort Worth said in May. "Let them all have their competitive gigs going on."

The working group is putting together a document over the next few months that will spell out the investment needed in Texas to take advantage of Panama Canal expansion - including a possible injection of $1 billion to $3.5 billion to prepare roads, rail lines and other components for additional freight.

Critics have said heavier trucks are a safety hazard because they need longer distances to brake in an emergency. But others say that trucks with a sixth axle carrying 97,000 pounds have the same stopping ability as a five-axle truck carrying 80,000 pounds.

Critics also say that the nation's crumbling roads and bridges will decay quicker if exposed to heavier vehicle weights.

The U.S. has a $70.9 billion backlog of bridge work, and heavier trucks could make the situation much worse, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.


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Source: Star-Telegram (Dickson,8/15)

Texas takes tort reform too far

By Patricia Kilday Hart

Of all William Shakespeare's enduring lines, perhaps the one that has resonated most through the generations comes from "Henry VI": "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Taken out of context, it's a great lawyer joke, as if the Bard knew modern society would blame lawyers for everything from inscrutable contracts to ridiculous consumer warning labels. (My favorite: an admonition against running at night on my son's glow-in-the-dark Frisbee.) A lawyer-free world conjures a society free of hair-splitting and hucksterism - in other words, Utopia.

Or does it? In Texas, we're learning what happens when you can't turn to a lawyer for help. Two strong forces are making it nearly impossible to seek redress for injury in state courts: sweeping tort reform laws and a Texas Supreme Court with an activist conservative bent. The results aren't pretty.

Consider the case of Michelle Gaines, who in June 2006 was a popular Palestine teenager with a bright future when an 18-wheeler hauling an oil rig smashed into her car, causing severe brain damage. A Tyler jury ordered the driver who caused the wreck and a businessman involved with the oil rig to pay her $8 million - money Gaines' family desperately needs to provide for her rehabilitation and care for the remainder of her life.

A Tyler appeals court overturned the jury's decision, claiming there was no evidence to support the verdict, and the Texas Supreme Court recently declined to consider Gaines' appeal.

And yet trial testimony showed that the men had destroyed crucial evidence demonstrating joint ownership of the rig and that the driver had been bribed to alter his story. Gaines' attorneys say the court's decision violates precedent that evidence should be construed in a light favorable to a jury's verdict.

Right to jury trial

"It's an outrageous decision," said University of Texas law professor Steve Goode, a member of Gaines' legal team. (The Gaineses' attorneys have asked the court to reconsider.) "It's astounding that they refused to consider this as evidence against this defendant."

But it's not just attorneys involved in specific cases who believe the court is engaging in wrong-headed activism. Tea party activists are beginning to question whether Texas Republicans have dismantled the Seventh Amendment - the right to a jury trial - in their slavish devotion to limiting lawsuits.

Former Harris County District Judge John Devine, who recently defeated Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina with tea party support, has criticized the court's willingness to overturn jury verdicts. And two independent studies suggest that the Texas Supreme Court - once criticized as biased for trial attorneys - has swung to the opposite philosophical pole.

UT law professor David Anderson, in a 2007 study of 69 opinions written by the court in 2004 and 2005, found that defendants - the parties accused of causing injuries - won 87 percent of the time.

Contempt for juries

Is that different from other states? Anderson examined all state appellate cases involving Wal-Mart between 1998 and 2005. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the discount chain in all 12 cases it received. There were 81 other cases in other states, but Wal-Mart prevailed in only 56 percent of them.

Texas Watch, reviewing cases involving consumer complaints from 2004 to 2010, found the court overturned jury verdicts an amazing 74 percent of the time. Wrote the study's authors: "The Texas Supreme Court is expected to respect reasonable jury verdicts. … In the final analysis, the court fails this test, impermissibly usurping the authority of juries and demonstrating contempt for their verdicts."

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips uses Texas as a cautionary tale against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's plan for federal tort reform. "Texans are losing their Seventh Amendment rights because they can't get lawyers to take cases anymore," Phillips wrote in a recent blog post.

He cited the case of Charles Caldwell, who died in October 2008 in a Dallas-area nursing home when attendants tried to force medications down his throat, but instead filled his lungs. When his son tried to sue, he could not find a willing lawyer.

Why? Texas tort reform legislation put such low caps on damages that no lawyer could afford to take the case. Yet, earlier this year, the Texas Board of Nursing issued a reprimand against the nurse for committing major medical errors.

Houston attorney Mark McCaig, has been warring with Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which lavishes campaign contributions on friendly politicians, by urging the Republican Party to rethink its stance. He's often dismissed as a phony conservative since he works for trial lawyer Steve Mostyn, a prominent Democratic campaign contributor.

Shakespeare knew it

But McCaig believes the rise of the tea party will challenge tort reform. "What you have seen happen is (that) it has taken away the rights of people with legitimate claims. It goes against the notion of personal responsibility." In our society, that means access to the courts, and to lawyers.

But Shakespeare knew that. The speaker of the famous line from "Henry VI" wanted to replace the rule of law with the personal whims of despots. In a society bereft of legal boundaries, there's no need for lawyers.

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Source: Houston Chronicle (Hart, 8/9)

$36 million settlement closes out lawsuit in NY bus-trailer crash that killed 4 in 2005

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The owners of a Canadian charter bus and a tractor-trailer are paying $36 million to settle a lawsuit over a 2005 highway collision in western New York that killed four people and injured 19, attorneys said Wednesday.

The settlement with Coach Canada and two Pennsylvania trucking firms heads off a string of trials that were set to begin this month.

The bus was carrying a Canadian youth hockey team from Windsor, Ontario, when it swerved off Interstate 390 about 30 miles south of Rochester and slammed into the truck parked on the side of the highway on Jan. 29, 2005.

Killed were Richard Edwards, 46, who coached the Windsor Wildcats women’s hockey team; his 13-year-old son, Brian; and a third passenger, Catherine Roach, 50. Truck driver Ernest Zeiset Jr., 42, also died.

All the other 19 bus passengers suffered injuries, which ranged from broken bones to brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. They included the coach’s wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Kelly, a player on a team of women ranging in age from 19 to 21.

Two insurers for Coach Canada are paying $22.5 million — almost two-thirds of the settlement — and three insurers for truck operator J & J Hauling Inc. of York Springs, Pa., and trailer owner Verdelli Farms of Harrisburg, Pa., are contributing $13.5 million, said Glenn Pezzulo, an attorney for the tractor and trailer companies.

“There was going to be one trial after another until they were all done,” Pezzulo said, starting with a Dec. 6 trial for Traci Butler, the team’s assistant coach. Court papers noted she suffered a brain injury, broke several bones and became partially deaf.

While police suspected fatigue and inexperience led to the crash, 24-year-old bus driver Ryan Comfort escaped criminal charges. He had driven for the bus company for two months.

Witnesses said he was driving erratically before the crash, but a grand jury declined to indict him. He pleaded guilty to a logbook violation and a traffic violation of failing to stay in the proper lane and was fined $300.

The bus was chartered in Windsor by the hockey team and was traveling to a ski resort when the crash occurred at dusk.

Authorities alleged Comfort lied about the hours he worked in another job during the three days before the crash and failed to report in the driver’s log book that he drove team members around Rochester in the six hours before they embarked on the ski trip. Commercial drivers are required to maintain accurate logs of their work hours and break times.

Comfort told police the bus “acted as though it struck something in the roadway, which caused it to veer to the right. ... I did not fall asleep at the wheel, nor was I influenced by any drugs or alcohol.”

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source: Washington Post (AP, 12/14)



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