A series of wrecks involving a semi truck turned fatal when some Good Samaritans made an unsafe stop to try to help and were fatally struck.
The incident occurred at around 2 a.m. on Sunday, May 14th on US 287 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
According to News Channel 6, a semi truck crashed through a grassy median along US 287 and and overturned, blocking the northbound lanes and much of the southbound lanes. The overturned semi truck then caused another wreck involving two box trucks, but no one was seriously hurt in either accident.
“You’ve got a semi truck that’s overturned blocking the entire north bound lane and into the southbound lanes as well. You got another accident that’s occurred already, I think maybe both had actually occurred and because people on the south bound lane tried to stop,” said Sheriff Duke, who responded to the wreck.
After the initial wrecks, Good Samaritans on the southbound side decided to pull over and try to help, and that’s when they were fatally struck by another vehicle. Duke says that, while stopping to help is appreciated, the safety of the situation should be assessed before stopping.
“Your life has got to be there Safety first before you can save someone else’s life, and so obviously call in locations, vehicles, what they see, if they saw multiple victims, anything,” said Sheriff Duke. “If they can park in that area where they’re safe, where no traffic is going to run over them, then they can get out and help and leave their emergency hazard lights on.”
“They’re not immune to being hit by people driving with their cellphones in their face and they’re just not paying attention, it just happens,” said Sheriff Duke. “But they need to put their emergency hazards on and either get past the accident and get in a safe area they can stop in and come back up on the shoulder of the road just to avoid traffic.”
The incident is still under investigation.
