Texas accident near Terrell kills three team roping horses

In a serious vehicular accident on Wednesday afternoon, October 30, 2013, a truck hauling U.S. team roping horses in a horse trailer veered off the eastbound Spur 557 merge ramp of IH-20. The big truck continued off the highway, striking a light pole, and jackknifed. The truck rig finally came to a stop, remaining upright, but the horse trailer containing the horses overturned and finally ended up on its side. The large highway light pole fell across one of the lanes of traffic. During the accident, a passenger vehicle became involved in the accident, sustaining some damage but nothing major.

The truck was on its way to Alabama after the U.S. Team Roping Championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Loaded in the trailer were four roping horses.

The Terrell Police, Terrell Fire, and Terrell Volunteer Fire Departments as well as the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office responded to the accident scene shortly before 1:00 p.m.

Emergency crews and road crews were able to remove one horse very quickly out of the wreckage. With the use of a tow truck, they managed to extricate the other three horses.

Injuries to the horses took the lives of two animals at the scene early on after the accident. One other horse had to be euthanized due to serious injuries. The fourth horse survived during and after the accident, and was emergency transported to the Equine Veterinary Services in Terrell, Texas, where it is holding its own at this time.

These horses were worth immense sentimental value to everyone involved with them. Reportedly the surviving horse is worth an estimated $200,000.

The driver of the truck survived with a head injury and was treated at the scene of the accident. According to the driver, there was some kind of a vibration sound just before the crash.

During and after the accident, traffic was snarled and backed up to FM148. On the eastbound side, traffic halted as well.

__________________________________
Source: Examiner (Rucki, 11/01)

Big 18-Wheeler Pileup Snarls I-35 Traffic For Hours In Central Texas

WACO — Traffic was beginning to flow again late Wednesday afternoon on southbound Interstate 35 in Waco after a big pileup involving three 18-wheelers that snarled traffic for several hours.

The crash at around 1:30 p.m. just south of South 18th Street backed up traffic into the Bellmead area.

One of the trucks was leaking diesel fuel and a hazardous materials team had to be called in to contain and clean up the spill.

One of the trucks ended up against a guardrail, which kept it from toppling from the bridge.

Waco police urged motorists to find an alternate route while crews worked to clear the scene.

Two truck drivers were taken by ambulance to a local hospital complaining of back and injuries.

The third driver did not require medical attention.

Rain was falling and the highway was slick at the time of the chain-reaction crash, which police say happened when an 18-wheeler in the outside lane hydroplaned, struck the median barrier and veered to the right, colliding with a truck in the center lane.

The two trucks then slid into a third 18-wheeler, which hit the guardrail on the far right side of the highway.

____________________
source: KWTX (7/11)

NHTSA Proposes Electronic Stability Control Systems to Prevent Deadly Rollovers

Manufacturers would have to equip large trucks and buses with safety systems that help prevent rollover accidents through computer-controlled braking, under regulations proposed Wednesday by the government.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s proposal would require electronic stability control in new trucks and buses, including motorcoaches.

The safety system senses when a driver might lose control and automatically applies brakes to individual wheels to keep the vehicle stable and avoid a rollover. It helps prevent skidding across icy or slick roads, and helps motorists keep control when swerving to avoid an unexpected object in the road. The individual wheel braking counters over-steering and under-steering.

Government research shows the technology could prevent up to 56 percent of rollover crashes each year — the deadliest among all crash types — and another 14 percent of loss-of-control crashes.

[Involved in an 18-wheeler or commercial truck accident? Contact us!]

NHTSA estimates that a standard requiring the safety systems on large trucks and large buses would prevent up to 2,329 crashes, eliminate an estimated 649 to 858 injuries, and prevent between 49 and 60 fatalities a year.

The safety systems are already required in passenger cars, sport utility vehicles and light trucks, beginning with the current model year. But the safety systems have been available in all SUVs and many passenger cars for years.

“We’ve already seen how effective stability control can be at reducing rollovers in passenger vehicles,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in a statement. “Now, we’re expanding our efforts to require stability enhancing technology on the many large trucks, motor coaches, and other large buses on our roadways.”

Safety advocates welcomed the proposal.

“Rollover crashes can be costly and catastrophic, especially when involving a large truck weighing 80,000 pounds or a motorcoach carrying as many as 54 passengers,” Jacqueline Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said.

Preventing a rollover is essential to protecting motorcoach occupants, she said. Motorcoaches have become the over-the-road passenger airlines for millions of families, students, seniors and church groups, with nearly 750 million trips taken each year.

David Champion, senior director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, has called electronic stability control “the single most important advance in auto safety since the development of the seatbelt.”

__________________
source: Washington Post (Lowy, 5/16)