Denton reminds drivers to slow down or move over after cars crash into emergency vehicles
Denton wants drivers to remember the importance, and legal responsibility, of drivers to slow down or move over when passing a stopped emergency vehicle.
The city has seen three crashes involving public safety vehicles in the last 30 days, damaging four city vehicles and one University of North Texas police vehicle, the city said in a news release.
One crash happened July 18 on Southbound Interstate 35E, near the Teasley exit, when a driver crashed into an unoccupied police vehicle. Nobody was injured in the crash, but the vehicle was totaled.
In another crash on July 30, UNT police and Denton police vehicles were struck when the vehicles were being used to block traffic while the officers worked a crash.
That incident happened at the intersection of South Carroll Boulevard and West Sycamore Street around 2:41 a.m. Nobody was hurt, but vehicles were damaged. The city said the 29-year-old driving the car that hit the police vehicles was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
The third crash, on Aug. 2, left a firefighter injured and sent the driver of a tractor-trailer to the hospital with a severe head injury.
That incident saw a tractor-trailer crash into a Denton Fire Department engine at the driver’s door then hit another fire department vehicle around 11:44 p.m. Firefighters were responding to a grass fire and were blocking the southbound lanes of Interstate 35, just north of Elm Street, according to the release.
The tractor-trailer driver lost control after hitting the engine, then veered into a grass median after striking the other vehicle. It rolled onto the driver’s side and began spilling diesel fuel, closing down the southbound service road for several hours, according to the release.
The city said the incident “posed extreme danger to [Denton Fire Department] personnel and nearly caused catastrophic damage to another Fire apparatus.”
Drivers in Texas are required by law to put one lane of traffic between themselves and stopped emergency vehicles, tow trucks, utility service vehicles, Texas Department of Transportation Vehicles and highway construction or maintenance vehicles, or slow to 20 mph below the posted speed limit when passing the vehicles.
If the roadway has a posted speed limit of 25 mph or less, drivers are required to slow to 5 mph.