Wesley Mitchell Injured in Truck Accident on SH 87 in Newton County, TX
Newton County, TX — November 18, 2022, 50-year-old Wesley Mitchell was injured in a crash with a tractor-trailer on State Highway 87 in Newton County.
Authorities say the incident happened around 7:55 a.m. on Texas 87 near County Road 3036. Preliminary investigation suggests an International semi-truck was towing a trailer north on the highway as Mitchell drove a Ford F-150 south nearby. According to reports Mitchell may have fallen asleep and the Ford veered left of center. It collided at an offset with the big rig, then spun out and hit a fence and trees on the roadside.
Mitchell was ejected during the secondary crash and suffered incapacitating injuries. The International driver was unhurt and pulled to the shoulder.
No further information is available at this time.
Commentary on Wesley Mitchell Accident in Newton County
It may seem like there's not much to discuss after a crash like this; if it's true the victim fell asleep what else could there be to say? Maybe further efforts wouldn't turn up much of note, but at the same time careful investigation is always important no matter what preliminary reports say. People don't always realize that the cause of a wreck and the cause of someone's injuries aren't always the same.
For example, a colleague and I were discussing a crash a while back in which a woman rear-ended a truck while texting and driving. Fault there seemed clear enough, but investigators were puzzled by the severity of the woman's injuries. Texting or not, she wasn't traveling fast enough at the time to have been hurt so badly. So what went wrong? It turned out her car had a defective airbag that inflated too late, meaning she probably would have walked away with little more than scrapes had it done its job correctly.
I'm not saying the same thing happened in Newton County, only that in many cases there's more to a wreck than meets the eye--and preliminary reports rarely have the full scoop. It takes further investigation from a practiced professional to be sure the whole story is learned; did that happen here?
