TRAFFIC DEATHS IN FRIO, LA SALLE
A tanker truck driver is dead in his cab beside the Union Pacific Railroad line near Artesia Wells on Monday after his vehicle was struck by a train. The grade crossing is marked by a single sign near a ranch gate through which the driver had left an oilfield jobsite.
The driver of an oilfield tanker truck lost his life Monday morning, November 28, when his vehicle was struck by a freight train near Artesia Wells.
Emergency responders arrived at the crash site to find that the driver had been trapped in the heavily damaged cab of the 18-wheel rig and that he had succumbed to his injuries.
The Texas Highway Patrol is investigating the case; troopers were assisted at the scene by deputies of the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office, firefighters and medics of the La Salle Fire Rescue.
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene by a justice of the peace.
Preliminary reports from the scene indicated that the truck had begun crossing the railroad tracks after passing through a ranch gate on an unpaved road from an energy industry jobsite when it was broadsided by the northbound train locomotive.
The Highway Patrol has withheld the driver’s name pending an investigation into the fatality.
