by JEN BIUNDO
A pickup truck hauling a trailer overloaded with drywall material fishtailed on IH-35 just in front of the Kyle Home Depot Thursday morning, causing a three-car pile-up, said investigators with the Kyle Police Department.
No serious injuries were reported, but three passengers pinned inside two vehicles were extricated by firefighters and transported to Brackenridge Hospital, said Kyle Fire Chief Glenn Whitaker.
The pickup truck driver and his passenger, whose names were not immediately available, had just finished purchasing the drywall material from the Home Depot on Dry Hole Road at about 11:30 a.m., investigators said.
Jason Morris, a south Austin resident who was driving immediately behind the vehicles that were struck, said he saw the overloaded pickup swerving as soon as the driver entered the interstate on-ramp.
“I could see him fishtailing,” Morris said. “It was too late. He started swerving and went into the far lane.”
The pick-up collided with a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado and a Chevrolet Suburban, knocking the Suburban off the interstate and onto the grass.
The driver of the pick-up and the two passengers in the Suburban were pinned inside their vehicles, firefighters said.
Other witnesses told a similar story. Wreck victims Vinny Rodriguez and Daniella Lozano, both students at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, said they were driving their Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck on the left lane when they saw the driver of the other pick-up fishtailing in the right lane just past the on-ramp. He swerved onto the grass, and then overcorrected back into traffic.
“We saw him swerving,” Rodriguez said. “He just cut through the traffic.”
The truck hit their vehicle on the front passenger’s side, while the trailer swideswiped the side rear of their truck.
Lozano said the air bags deployed and she was trapped inside the truck, with the passenger’s side door twisted shut.
“It smelled like gas,” Lozano said. “I thought we were going to blow up.”
Lozano managed to escape the truck through the driver’s side door.
Morris said an off-duty firefighter who was driving northbound witnessed the wreck, jumped across the retaining wall and ran to help the wreck victims in the Suburban. He instructed Morris to hold the victim’s head stable to prevent injury. Meanwhile, a group of military men tried to pry open the doors with crowbars.
After the wreck, Morris stood observing the scene holding Blanco, a trembling but unharmed six month old Chihuahua puppy he pulled from the Suburban.
“One of the first things they said was ‘How is the puppy,’” Morris said.
Interstate traffic was stalled for miles north of the accident, with all three lanes shut down. There is no western access road on that portion of IH-35.
The Kyle Police Department is investigating the accident.
Related stories:
- Holiday traffic sparks accidents 06/2/2010
- Trucker blamed in I-35 fatality 05/7/2012
- One killed, three injured in Buda wrecks 04/30/2012
