Cardboard boxes of bagged cheese lie strewn across the IH-35 roadside median Wednesday afternoon, April 26, after being flung from a ruptured freight truck when it crashed into a work convoy vehicle near Dilley
An 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig transporting a cargo of liquid cheese crashed in the southbound lanes of IH-35 last week, forcing a highway shut-down for nearly eight hours.
According to the Frio County Sheriff’s Office, the freight truck collided with a work convoy truck near Milemarker 86 approaching Dilley city limits shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, and the wreckage partially blocked the interstate.
Emergency responders arrived at the scene to find that the freighter’s box trailer had burst open in the crash, causing several cases of cheese to fall from the vehicle. Although the heavily damaged trailer remained upright, the tractor unit tipped onto its side on the highway median after tearing down an exit sign for Dilley.
The freight truck driver, identified as Adrian Ontiveros, was transported by ambulance to Frio Regional Hospital in Pearsall. His brother, Eduardo Ontiveros, who had been traveling as a passenger in the freighter cab, had sustained a head injury and required medical airlift to University Hospital in San Antonio after being extracted from the wreckage by first responders.
Deputies reported that the work convoy driver had escaped the crash unscathed.
Heavy southbound traffic on the interstate was stalled and diverted to the west-side access road throughout Wednesday afternoon during the accident investigation and clean-up.
