Sweetwater, Texas, railroad overpass (Photo: Labeled for reuse)
A contract worker was struck and killed by an 18-wheeler on I-20 in Sweetwater, Texas, on Wednesday morning, December 6, 2017. The fatal crash occurred close to mile marker 248. Sixty-two-year-old Jesus Vicente Enriquez of San Angelo, Texas, was part of a construction crew surveying a site in which five crashes had occurred earlier in the day, all of which involved 18-wheelers, according to Sweetwater Fire Chief Grant Madden. Madden said the road has a slick spot that isn’t related to weather. The Department of Public Safety said Enriquez was standing in the median of I-20 when an 18-wheeler headed east jackknifed, slid into the median, and struck him. Enriquez worked for Reece Albert, Inc., which is based in San Angelo. In the previous crashes that day, one driver had suffered minor injuries.
Madden said that right around 7:30 a.m. or so, a string of accidents involving 18-wheelers began to happen, one after the other. Enriquez was working as a contractor for a paving company. He had been surveying the damage caused by a previous crash. When the fatal accident occurred, he was standing on the median looking at the diesel spill that was to be cleaned up. No one else was in that area when the big rig lost control and ran over him. Two other contract workers who witnessed the truck losing control quickly moved, to stay clear. Enriquez was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Sweetwater fire department investigated the scene to find strategies for preventing any further accidents from occurring.
–Guest Contributor
