• January 13, 2022

UPDATE (January 17, 2022): Officials identified the victims in the accident as Stacey West and Charles West. Right now, additional details about the accident are unavailable.

San Antonio, TX -- January 13, 2022, two people sustained fatal injuries following an accident where a pickup crashed along Loop 410.

Authorities reported that the crash took place at around 5:30 a.m. on Loop 410 in the area of Blanco Road and NW Military Highway.

Officials said that a pickup was traveling in the Castle Hills area eastbound on Loop 410. Somehow, the pickup lost control and crashed into a guardrail.

Due to the collision, a man and a woman sustained fatal injuries. Police say that fatigue or distraction may have caused the crash. Investigations are ongoing at this time.

Commentary on Stacey West, Charles West Single-Vehicle Accident in San Antonio

It's not surprising to see that police are looking into fatigue and distraction as possible factors here. At 5:30 a.m., those are pretty common factors. No doubt they're also looking into alcohol. Sometimes people go out drinking, a bar recklessly and illegally over-serves them, and hours after last call they're still too drunk to drive. Looking into that could be crucial for holding a complicit establishment accountable for their role in the crash.

That said, are police looking into less common factors? Alcohol may have nothing to do with this crash, so where would investigations go then? Things like mechanical defects, tire blowouts, road hazards, medical emergencies, and even other vehicles that left the scene are not quite as common or obvious with accidents like this. But if one of my loved ones was involved in a similar crash, I would want to be sure investigators were looking into every possibility so that I knew I was getting the full story. The families that call me about crashes like this usually feel the exact same way. Are steps being taken here to give this awful tragedy the attention it deserves?

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