One Dead, Four Injured on Highway 277 South Auto-Trailer Accident
Shortly before 10 A.M. on Friday, July 8, 2011, a horrific accident on Highway 277 South, approximately 20 miles outside Eagle Pass, Texas, killed one woman and injured four persons.
The deceased person at the accident has been identified as Maria Orozco, 62, of Crystal City, Texas, while the four persons injured have not yet been identified.
The injured persons were taken by ambulance to the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center. Three of the injured were later-released while a fourth person, believed to be the tractor-trailer driver, was transported to San Antonio, Texas, due to serious injuries sustained in the accident.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is currently investigating the accident. Preliminary reports indicate the accident occurred approximately 20 miles outside of Eagle Pass in Maverick County where there was highway construction underway and traffic was being stopped. One tractor-trailer, believed to have caused the accident, did not slow down and collided with a pick-up truck, believed to be where the fatality victim was traveling-in, causing it to slam into another tractor-trailer and causing a chain reaction among the stopped vehicles.
Maverick County Sheriff’s Department personnel, City of Eagle Pass Ambulances, private ambulances, and DPS officers responded to the horrific scene of the accident.
Traffic on Highway 277 South between Eagle Pass and Carrizo Springs was backed-up for seven hours and diverted to alternative routes as law enforcement officers investigated the accident and used the jaws of life on the pinned pick-up truck crushed between the two tractor-trailers.
Another pick-up truck with a horse trailer was involved with at least one animal dying at the scene of the accident.
The tragic accident remains under investigation by DPS.
