Driver charged with intoxication manslaughter in construction zone crash

A truck driver has been arrested and charged with intoxication manslaughter after crashing into a car stopped for construction in Dallas early on Thursday morning. 

The accident happened at around 1:30 a.m. in Fort Worth, Texas on West Loop 820 at White Settlement Road. 

Fort Worth Police Officer Brad Perez explained that “traffic was at a stop. There was a semi-truck that was driving and did not stop and collided with the vehicle directly in front of it. [It was a construction zone that] was all compressed down to one lane, and it was at a stop, so as you can imagine, it starts to become congested, no matter what time of day that would be.”

The woman behind the wheel of the vehicle that was hit did not survive the crash. Her 41-year-old male passenger was seriously injured in the wreck, reported Fox 4 news. A third car was also struck in the chain reaction crash, but no one inside of that vehicle was hurt. 

The truck driver in the crash, 24-year-old Guadalupe Velasquez Cruz has since been arrested and charged with intoxication manslaughter. 

“There were signs that he may have been intoxicated,” said Perez. “So some DWI officers made the location, performed some field sobriety tests, took a sample of his blood, and it came back that he was indeed intoxicated. So he was placed under arrest and charged with intoxication manslaughter.”

“It’s bad enough when a DWI occurs, but we’re talking a semi-truck with a driver that’s responsible for a very powerful machine that can cause death — which it actually did.  That’s the unfortunate thing,” said Perez. “Why was this person intoxicated? Why were they driving a semi-truck in that state?”