Spring break traffic fatality

[SHANEA]

From the Border Hotline...

Spring break traffic fatality
Linda Bailey Potter 18.MAR.07
ALPINE – Robert Lee Stowe, 32, of Houston fell asleep while traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 385, 26.2 miles south of Marathon, when he rolled his 2002 Toyota Tacoma five times resulting in the death of his niece Brittney Lewis, a minor, of Katy, Texas. No other vehicle was involved in the accident.

The accident occurred at 1:22 p.m. Wednesday, March 14. Terlingua Justice of the Peace James Burr pronounced Lewis dead at the scene at 3 p.m. Stowe is in stable condition at Big Bend Regional Medical Center with abrasions and a bruised lung.

When Stowe was interviewed he said that he had fallen asleep and that they were returning home after a camping trip at Big Bend National Park.

DPS Trooper Rene Yharra, Alpine DPS office, reported that Lewis’s car drifted across the southbound lane of U.S. Hwy 385 into the burrow ditch when it then rolled five times in the ditch coming to rest on all four wheels facing east. The accident is still under investigation.
DPS Sgt. Lujan and Trooper James Morris, as well as the Brewster County Sheriff’s Office and BBNP rangers assisted Yharra in the investigation of the accident.

[TheWildWestGuy]

That's tragic and kind of unusual in that it occured at 1:30 in the Afternoon not at night or early morning.  The guy must have been really tired and worn out at the start of his 10 hour drive to Houston... TWWG

[SHANEA]

unusual in that it occured at 1:30 in the Afternoon not at night or early morning. ... TWWG

I suppose if it had to happen, then it's a good thing it was on an isoleted stretch of road and not I-10 where it could have been a head-on.

[Javeing]

Makes me feel really lucky. Had a similar incident in BIBE on march 10, driving up  the Ross Scenic road early in the morning  , barely missed a car that swerved around a bend , cut across our lane and into the shoulder. Thanks to our quick thinking driver (thank god he'd had his coffee already) we managed to swear in the other direction, and miss him by a foot.  We both got out of our cars, with no harm done; both big trucks so the little bit of brush we managed to land on, didn’t do anything. But turns out the guy had fallen asleep at the wheel, and had his young son with him too. I'm just really grateful that we were all OK. Everybody warned me that the roads were the most dangerous part of BIBE, and they weren’t kidding.

[presidio]

The guy must have been really tired and worn out at the start of his 10 hour drive to Houston... TWWG

Sadly, and scary, there are far more sleep-deprived people operating motor vehicles than there ever will be drunks (and their numbers are bad enough).

[Daryl]

we managed to swear in the other direction

I'd have been swearing in all directions!