UPDATE- Authorities have identified the two victims of a fatal accident involving a passenger vehicle and tractor-trailer in Temple, Texas, on Saturday.
The Temple Police Department said 22-year-old Abigail Boatwright and 17-year-old Evan Boatwright, both of Gatesville, Texas, died as a result of the accident. The driver of the passenger vehicle remains in stable condition at a hospital.
Authorities are still investigating the cause the accident that the Boatwrights and critically injured the driver when an oversize load from a passing flatbed truck came loose and fell onto their vehicle on a Texas highway.
The accident happened shortly after 11 a.m., and firefighters in Temple, Texas, responded to the reported collision along State Highway 36.
“Upon arrival crews found an oversized load had come off of its trailer, pinning a vehicle beneath,” Temple Fire & Rescue said in a Facebook post. “The load being hauled by the transport fleet was approximately 350,000 pounds. It is not known what the piece of equipment is.”
The pinned vehicle had three occupants. Two passengers died, and a third was extricated and flown to an emergency room with life-threatening injuries.
“Extrication took just over four hours to safely remove the driver from the vehicle,” Temple Fire & Rescue said.
Temple is about 100 miles north of Austin along Interstate 35.
Authorities did not release the names of the victims, the truck driver or the trucking company involved in the accident.
Temple Fire & Rescue responded with 10 units and 25 personnel, according to a release. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
The road where the accident occurred has been closed since Saturday.
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Alex
Clearly a distillation column for a refinery
Alberto Pittaluga
based on a video taken 30 minutes prior to the accident showing the convoy moving , I tend to believe that the root cause of the accident is an excess of force applied between the bolsters/turn tables. In fact the rear saddle of the column went completely off in spite of the lashing. Unsynchronized pusher and puller, over speeding or excessive breaking could be the causes. Not sure about the quantity of escort vehicles and the applied traffic mitigation plan. A speeding and breaking IVMS report should be made available in order to ascertain the actual cause of the incident.
Victor
While it’s sad that people were killed, it’s also extremely sad to read this in the mainstream media and see all the idiotic comments from people obviously ignorant about the situation, the trucking industry and making stupid assumptions about what happened.
Bradley
Interested to hear what actually caused this. Social Media says “Pickup ran into the load and knocked it off”. Not sure I see that as plausible. Other reports say “The load fell off the trailer onto the pickup”. That the load “fell off the trailer” sounds pretty far stretched as well. Hopefully it’ll be reported what happened.
Charlie
It looks like a distillation tower
Chris
That’s a tower for a chemical plant/refinery. Built at a fab shop then shipped to the facility to be installed. Not sure what it’s specific use is for as far as, what chemical process it’ll be used for, but in general, that’s what it is.