A crash in East Lawton sent one person to the hospital on Tuesday morning. The wreck happened at the intersection of Flower Mound Road and East Lee Boulevard/Highway 7. This crash, which involved a semi truck and a car, happened around 7:45 a.m. The driver of the car was initially pinned in his vehicle. First responders spent 15 minutes removing him from his car. KSWO News Channel Seven reports that the driver appeared to be alert and conscious as he was loaded into an ambulance.
Very few details have been released regarding the cause of this crash. There is also no word on the extent of the injuries involved or the condition of the driver. The crash is likely still under investigation. Since this collision happened at an intersection, it is possible that one of the drivers failed to obey traffic signals. Last week, we reported on another crash involving a semi truck in Oklahoma. The crash happened on the HE Bailey Turnpike, just east of the airport in Chickasha. At least one person was killed, and the crash resulted in a fiery blaze beside the turnpike.
Collisions involving semi trucks are often incredibly damaging to other drivers on the road. Large tractor-trailers can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. This means that they can’t stop as quickly as smaller passenger vehicles. It’s common for crashes with semi trucks to be fatal for the drivers of other cars involved. Small passenger vehicles just don’t have the weight and size to safely handle collisions with such large and heavy trucks. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration analyzed large truck crashes with passenger vehicles in 2009. They found that there were 1,709 fatal collisions involving large trucks and passenger vehicles. Additionally, they also found that there were 34,000 semi truck crashes involving passenger cars that resulted in injuries.