Three killed in garbage truck rollover
By Chris Paschenko, The Daily News
January 8, 2008 - LA MARQUE — A witness first to the scene of a Monday morning fatal sanitation-truck crash said he ignored spilling diesel fuel and rushed to help, but the three men pinned inside the crushed and overturned cab didn’t respond to his questions or gentle touch.
Stephen “Blane” Johnson of Pearland said he didn’t see the vehicle turn over as it turned left from the Interstate 45 north feeder road onto FM 1764, but he saw it sliding on its side just seconds before the loaded refuse truck’s cab slammed into a concrete bridge column that supports the I-45 overpass.
Three men, including a La Marque High School alumnus, likely died on impact inside the truck, which bore BFI logos, and were pronounced dead at the scene by the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Ken Jones of the Texas Department of Public Safety said state police identified the driver, who was employed with Allied Waste Services, as Jimmy D. Bigham, 44, of Houston.
Jones said the two other men, who were contract employees, were Rafael Alejandro Montiel, 27, of Pasadena, and Terence Owens, 40, of Houston.
Owens’ family members heard news of the single-vehicle wreck and went to the scene.
As firefighters worked to remove the men from the cab about noon, James Owens said a family member called him and told him about the wreck.
“My son has worked for BFI for about three or four years,” Owens said.
Gloria Cook also came to the wreck and said her son went to La Marque High School. She said he was a football and basketball player there, and she showed a wallet-size photo of Owens, pictured in his high school years.
Although troopers spelled Owens’ first name Terence, his family spelled it Terrance.
Johnson said he saw the crash as he stopped at a traffic light on the south I-45 feeder road at FM 1764, which is also FM 2004.
“I got out of my truck and touched one of the men on the leg to see if he was alive,” Johnson said. “I asked him if he was OK. I didn’t see the one above him, the driver, at first. They were both strapped in.”
The truck was still running when Johnson arrived, but as the diesel fuel continued to spill, the engine stopped.
“In my mind, I figured they shut it off,” Johnson said, referring to one of the men inside. “After the motor shut off, I could hear the fuel spewing, and I was thinking I needed to get these guys out. I grabbed his leg, trying to talk to him, but there was just silence. I couldn’t hear anything going on inside the cab. The way they were pinned, there was no way to get them out.”
Other people began arriving about 30 seconds later, Johnson said.
“An older man was standing there praying for them,” Johnson said. “I kept thinking if they’d been a foot over ... but the way the cab hit, that was it.”
La Marque Fire Chief Todd Zacherl said firefighters arrived shortly after the 10:37 a.m. emergency call, but were unable to help the fatally injured men.
As La Marque and Texas City police and sheriff’s deputies closed the east lanes of FM 1764, Johnson and another woman, who refused to give her name during an interview, both gave written witness statements to state troopers investigating the crash.
The woman said she saw two men in the front seat wearing seat belts and one man in the rear of the cab. It wasn’t immediately known if the truck had a rear seat.
Jones, in reading from a preliminary synopsis of the report compiled by troopers, said the truck failed to control its speed. There was a vehicle in front of it as the truck approached the intersection, he said.
“It took evasive action to avoid rear-ending the vehicle by turning into the turnaround lane,” Jones said. “It struck a cement curb, causing it to roll over onto it’s passenger side and strike a cement pillar.”
Authorities diverted eastbound FM 1764 traffic to FM 2004 just west of the wreck, as troopers spray-painted the truck’s tire tracks, tracing where it merged from the left turn lane of the north feeder road and traveled under the bridge.
Jeff Diamant, a Houston attorney who has represented Allied Waste in lawsuits, was also at the scene. He said the driver was an Allied Waste employee and the other men were contract workers.
“Obviously it’s a tragic, unfortunate incident,” Diamant said. “Our hearts and thoughts are with the family members of the deceased.”
The fully loaded truck spilled residential trash onto FM 1764. Zacherl said the sanitation crew was likely headed to a landfill west of the wreck scene off FM 1764.
The bridge’s support column sustained scratch marks from the crash from the ground to about 7 feet high.
Norm Wigington, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Transportation, said workers inspected the bridge’s column and determined it wasn’t damaged and didn’t require repair.
State troopers opened the intersection about 5 p.m., Jones said.
