Car accidents involving large commercial vehicles, 18-wheelers, oil field services trucks and other imposing vehicles, have skyrocketed in the past 5 years and caused many deaths and injuries. The State of Texas recently rated Eagle Ford Trucking Accidents up there with cartel violence in their list of serious threats to public safety. Anyone who has experience in driving Southern Texas roadways in the past couple of years has probably had a close call or a near miss with a large commercial vehicle, or at least seen one.
Further, anyone that lives in San Antonio, Texas knows that, wrong-way drivers have been causing car accidents with alarming regularity. The State of Texas has even studied the roadways in and around San Antonio to try to determine the increase in wrong way driving accidents. One example happened recently –
According to initial reports, four people were killed and one other was injured and listed in stable condition at University Hospital, after a grisly accident on the West Side of San Antonio Saturday. According to the San Antonio Police Department, a family was riding in their Ford Expedition, traveling west on U.S. Highway 90 near Loop 1604 when an 18-wheeler that was headed in the wrong direction struck their vehicle head-on near Kriewald Road. The car accident happened just before midnight.
The truck driver, later identified as Ruben Galindo, 60, was uninjured. Police described him as “heavily intoxicated,” and arrested him at the scene of the accident. He was charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter, and was being held at the Bexar County Jail on a $1 million bond. The male driver and two female victims who were killed in the Expedition died instantly, while the fourth, another female, died in an ambulance. A teenage male who was also in the Expedition was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.
This tragic car accident has forever changed many lives. An 18-wheeler driver, trained, and educated on being a safe driver, chose to drive a large combination vehicle drunk and endanger the lives of others. Even worse, this driver was so intoxicated he got on a roadway going the wrong way against traffic. Now, he is in jail and four people have been killed.
The San Antonio truck accident lawyer at Hill Law Firm has successfully handled many 18-wheeler accident lawsuits in Texas. He has also successfully negotiated corporate policies to better educate commercial truck drivers on safety issues such as drinking and driving, texting and driving, responsibly entertaining clients, and other issues where corporate policies are often deficient.
UPDATE April 15, 2013: The people who were killed in this horrific accident have been identified as the Koontz Family from Bracketville, Texas. The sole survivor of the crash was Zachary Koontz, a seventh-grader, according to police and school officials. The people killed in the car accident were identified as Zachary’s parents, Kenneth and Melissa Koontz, and two older sisters, Madison and Marley Ann, who went to Brackett High School.The family had been in San Antonio to take part in the UIL competition, where Madison received high praise for her performance in a one-act play earlier that day.
The San Antonio Police aren’t sure how long Galindo had been traveling the wrong way on the highway, but they said it seemed as if Galindo left U.S. 90, became confused and re-entered the highway through an exit. A sobriety test was performed at the scene, and a mandatory blood draw was taken.
According to San Antonio police, this is officially the deadliest crash in the city so far this year, but it’s not the only one. Thus far in 2013, 50 people have perished in accidents on San Antonio roads, a number that is 12 higher than at this time in 2012. As stated previously, wrong way crashes are a hidden danger in Bexar County, Texas. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this horrible accident.
If you have been injured or lost a loved one in a trucking accident, call the Hill Law Firm for questions or a free case evaluation.