Larry Armstrong, Carol Armstrong, 1 Injured in Truck Accident in Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth, TX — September 14, 2023, Larry Armstrong, Carol Armstrong, and another were injured following a semi-truck accident on I-35W.
Details from authorities indicate that the crash happened just before 10:00 a.m. on southbound lanes of the freeway near Spur 280.
According to officials, 81-year-old Larry Armstrong, 80-year-old Carol Armstrong, and a 77-year-old woman were in a Nissan Titan which was going southbound on I-35W. While doing so, authorities say that an 18-wheeler made an unsafe lane change, crossing multiple lanes to move toward an exit ramp. In doing so, the truck crashed into the Nissan, causing the pickup to lose control and crash into a barrier.
Larry and Carol Armstrong as well as the third occupant of the Nissan had injuries described as incapacitating. There were no other reported injuries. At this time, there doesn't appear to be any mention of possible charges pending.
We've all seen drivers do something like what's described here—veering over suddenly to make an exit and causing everyone else around them to avoid them. I've seen it at this exact interchange many times, especially considering traffic that's trying to go all the way from the TX-121 merge over to the I-30 exit.
But making such a sudden maneuver in a commercial truck is obviously dangerous, and I'd be curious to know what possible justification a truck driver could come up with to explain those actions. The answers can sometimes be pretty surprising.
There was this one case I had, for example, in which a truck driver was traveling for 20 hours straight without any breaks, which is way beyond federal hours of service limits. The truck driver's reason for doing so, however, was that it's what his employer wanted him to do. In fact, that company would offer bonuses to drivers who cut corners and did as much work as they physically could, rules be damned. The company was essentially betting they could maximize their business and deal with the consequences later. Well, the consequences were that people got hurt, so I'd say they lost that gamble.
Maybe nothing so serious happened here, but a truck driver hitting someone while trying to make an exit doesn't sound likely to be a driver safely going about their business. Have authorities been able to figure out what the driver was doing that may have contributed this accident?
