If you head north of Edinburg on US-281, you will soon enough come to Interstate 10. That east-west artery connects us to both the west and east coasts of the U.S. It connects us, too, to Ozona, a small Texas town that was the recent site of a horrific chain reaction accident that claimed lives and caused injuries.
According to a Department of Public Safety spokesperson, a 32-year-old Connecticut woman was driving east on the interstate in a Ford Ranger shortly before 5 a.m. when she fell asleep. Her truck ran off of the highway and rolled over, partially blocking the inside eastbound lane.
She managed to get out of the Ranger, a news report states, and then climbed on to the vehicle to sit. As she sat there, a 47-year-old Minnesota man driving his 18-wheeler approached in the outside eastbound lane.
The trucker spotted the vehicle of someone who had stopped to help the Connecticut woman, so he moved his rig to the inside lane. Unfortunately, the trucker did not see the pick-up there, so the tractor-trailer slammed into it, killing the Connecticut woman atop the Ranger.
The 18-wheeler careened out of the eastbound lanes, through the median and into the westbound lanes where it struck a Volkswagen carrying a couple from Mexico and a passenger. All three people in the VW were pronounced dead at the scene.
The only survivor of the crashes was the truck driver who suffered injuries described as “incapacitating.”
The catastrophic damages can never be undone, of course, but in similar cases accident victims and families that have lost loved ones will pursue justice and compensation. You can contact a skilled personal injury attorney experienced in wrongful death litigation to discuss your options.