Tractor-trailer from Crowley-based firm caused bridge accident near Salado

A 32-year-old Arlington man was killed and three others were injured Thursday morning when a Crowley-based tractor-trailer slammed into a bridge construction project on Interstate 35 near Salado in Central Texas.

The tractor-trailer — a flatbed carrying a cherry picker — was being driven in the northbound lanes by an employee of Crowley-based Lares Trucking at about 11:30 a.m. when it struck the bottom of the bridge, causing two concrete beams to come crashing down onto the highway and other vehicles.

The man killed was identified as Clark Brandon Davis, whose mangled truck lay in the southbound lanes for most of the afternoon. The big rig that had been behind him was also badly damaged.

The crash snarled traffic around Salado, about 40 miles north of Austin, for hours. I-35 remained closed in both directions as of 10 p.m. but was expected to fully reopen around midnight.

At some point, the interstate — used to transport goods from the southern border into the country’s interior — was gridlocked for about 10 miles in both directions. Usually quiet and rural roads became crowded points of detour as drivers struggled to navigate around the wreckage.

The tractor-trailer was too tall to clear the bridge, Texas Department of Transportation officials said, but agency spokeswoman Veronica Beyer said she didn’t know the height of the truck.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, which grants permits to trucks and requires taking alternative routes in cases when vehicles are too high for an underpass, couldn’t provide information about the tractor-trailer’s height because the agency didn’t yet know which truck caused the incident.

“We are continuing to work with our partner agencies and will investigate whether any permitted loads were involved pending law enforcement’s investigation into the cause of the collision,” the spokesman, Adam Shaivitz, said in a statement.

Three signs posted in the 2 miles before the bridge said its clearance was 13 feet and 6 inches, which is lower than the bridge’s actual height, Beyer said, to provide a margin of safety.

4 other vehicles involved

After the crash, the bridge’s beams fell on one of two other tractor-trailers involved, causing that vehicle to jackknife. Two pickups were also involved in the accident, and medics took three people to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

“This bridge did not collapse,” highway department spokesman Bob Kaufman said. “A truck struck the overpass. Two beams fell. And the ensuing accident took place shortly thereafter.”

Construction on the bridge at Farm Road 2484 is part of a multimillion-dollar state project. One of its goals is to widen I-35 from four lanes to six.

The highway department had already torn down the previous two-lane Farm Road 2484 overpass and built what will be the westbound side of a significantly wider bridge.

Construction is well underway on the future eastbound overpass — located directly south of the westbound bridge — with huge concrete beams in place above the northbound and southbound lanes of I-35.

Project contractor James Construction Group hadn’t yet started to install the horizontal concrete decking that will lie on the beams of the bridge that was hit.

By Thursday afternoon, state transportation officials hadn’t checked the beams that weren’t dislodged by the crash to ensure their structural integrity, Kaufman said.

Agency officials released no cost estimates on the damage in Salado.

‘He didn’t tell me nothing’

Lares Trucking owner Julian Lares said he wasn’t sure where the driver was headed Thursday morning. The tractor-trailer continued past the bridge before stopping.

“He didn’t tell me nothing. He called and said he had an accident,” Lares said.

When reached by the Star-Telegram, the driver, Valentin Martinez, said that he was “OK” and that he didn’t need to go to the hospital. When asked where he was headed, he hung up.

Lares said he doesn’t know how tall the tractor-trailer is. He tried to head to the scene of the accident, he said, but there is “too much traffic.”

Work zone awareness

This week, Transportation Department officials are calling for increased safety in orange-barrel zones in recognition of National Work Zone Awareness Week, which ends Friday.

“People often think work zone crashes result in the deaths of roadside workers, but last year 87 percent of work zone fatalities were motorists,” said John Barton, deputy executive director of the state Transportation Department. “Our TxDOT employees and contractors are obviously at risk, but so too are drivers and their passengers.”

On Thursday, a little more than an hour before the incident, officials from the state Transportation Department, North Texas Tollway Authority and Department of Public Safety gathered in Irving to urge motorists to take extra care in work zones.

Last year, 146 people were killed in work zone crashes, Transportation Department officials said.

Also in 2014, there were 19,393 work zone crashes, a 12 percent increase from the year before.

Thursday’s incident could add fodder to the debate over transportation funding during the legislative session in Austin. Elected leaders are talking about the need to replace the state’s aging infrastructure and the lack of traditional funding — mostly from motor fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees — to do so.

A 2012 investigation by the Star-Telegram determined that 29 bridges in Tarrant County were structurally deficient or obsolete.

Staff writers Gordon Dickson, Monica S. Nagy, Patrick M. Walker and Judy Wiley contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press and the Austin American-Statesman.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Tractor-trailer from Crowley-based firm caused bridge accident near Salado."