Posted on 05/02/2024 6:44:59 AM PDT by texas booster
SH 36 in Temple has been reopened after a nearly 350,000-pound distillation column fell off the back of a semi-truck and onto a car Saturday morning, killing two people and sending one to the hospital in critical condition, according to the City of Temple.
The column pinned the vehicle underneath after it was detached from the semi-truck and took a coordinated effort from several different departments to remove it, Temple Fire and Rescue Public Information Office Santos Soto said.
"That load was bigger than anything that we had equipment for and we worked with several different agencies to get several pieces of equipment out there to assist with the recovery process of the occupants," Soto said.
The City has now stated the stretch of road, near Highway 317, has been cleared of debris and is reopened for normal traffic flow.
"We had our special operations team out there as well as special operations teams from Killeen and Georgetown Fire," Soto said.
According to Temple Fire, two of the people in the pinned car died and the third person, the driver, was removed after being trapped for four hours. The driver was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Their identities have not been released at the time this article was published.
I never, ever drive behind a truck hauling anything on a flatbed - I’ve heard this same story too often “spilled load” on the freeway, unfortunately people died in this incident.
I thought of this the other day when I saw a truck dead ahead in my freeway lane hauling a load of very large pipes - and going well over the speed limit. I passed two lanes over, quickly and it looked like the pipes weren’t secured well on the bed of the truck.
My husband said same about not driving behind trucks with flatbeds hauling anything , especially when he was on the motorcycle - said there was an incident near our house where a piece of playground equipment fell off the back of a truck and hit a motorcycle, the rider ended up being killed.
“””The load reportedly came from Houston, Texas and its final destination was in Winkler County, Texas.”””
The distance from Houston to Winkler County via Temple is about 900 miles.
Lots of opportunities for something to go wrong when hauling a very long and heavy load.
"Joe"
🤔
Here's the page with the image of the actual permit:
I followed the directions to the intended destination -- on 302, 4.6 mi west of FM 1232. Looks like here, at the Wink 302 Station.
Wink, the boyhood home of Roy Orbison.
Instead, this "demethanizer" crashed in Temple.
Good find.
Looks like the manufacturer of the demethanizer will need to make a second one.
And transport it 900 miles?
“They say it was a distillation tower was 217 feet long and it was hauled on two trailers with each trailer having 40 tires.”
Yet only one column support on each trailer. Not enough support for such a massive column. I would’ve had 3 supports per trailer but I tend to over-engineer.
Impressive.
Two trailers, very long load, anchored at only two pivots, one in the center of each trailer, a puller tractor, and a pusher tractor.
What could possibly go wrong?
Thanks for posting the actual permit.
It appears the trucking company was taking the back roads in Texas and had to make many right turns and left turns along the route.
I suspect they messed up on one of those turns and the ‘hold downs’ on the trailers got damaged.
How sad for the family of the victims.
And transport it 900 miles?<<<
This one stopped 400 miles short!
The victims (the two passengers, siblings?) were from Gatesville, 30 or so mi NW of Temple. The survivor is the driver.
Hope for the driver’s sake is was “merely” a terrible, freak accident, not that this person had blown by safety vehicles and/or was jerking around, challenging the skills of the truck driver.
There ought to to be camera evidence and the truck driver’s account.
Awful all around.
Lost to me in these news reports (must be in here somewhere obvious, just that I’m multitasking) is if the victims were going in the same direction, or if they were in an oncoming vehicle, when... ?@*$!!
The trailers need to be able to negotiate turns. Single center pivot points allow this.
It still looks just plain wrong...
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair
As a “hay person,” what’s the difference between hay and straw? Are they from the same plant?
There is only one ‘support’ per trailer so the load can make corners. It has to pivot at that point and more than one would not let that happen. No difference in application that the fifth wheel tractor to trailer attachment on every semi on the road.
Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks, very much, for this alert.
Oh sheesh - very bad accident.
The investigtion will be at length no doubt.
Total negligence.
A load such as this should have been moved @ 0400, with escort vehicles, and the road closed to general traffic.
There was no reason to endanger the general public.
The lawsuits will be huge
The Temple Police Department have identified the two deceased victims as 22-year-old Abigail Boatwright and 17-year-old Evan Boatwright of Gatesville, Texas.
They said the driver is in stable condition.
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