Car Accident Rates Jump in Eagle Ford Shale Region with Oil Boom
Car Accident Rates Jump in Eagle Ford Shale Region with Oil Boom
Ford and Laurel Attorneys at Law,
San Antonio 6/18/14
With the promise of big paychecks, thousands of oil and gas workers have made their way to south central Texas, but the small towns and rural roads of this area haven’t been able to sustain the increase.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2012 more than 2,723 catastrophic injury accidents with almost 250 fatalities occurred in Eagle Ford Shale region. Beginning in 2008, some counties have seen an increase in car accidents by 1,000%.
Karnes county sheriff David Jaluka, serving one of the areas with the greatest rises in traffic accidents has said, “You take your life in your own hands by being out on the road right now.” So many people were killed on Texas 239 southeast of Kenedy that it’s now known as the “death trap.”
Roads that previously saw one or two trucks a day now carry 500. The highways weren’t built expecting the constant heavy loads they now bear under so many commercial vehicles. Pot holes have become the norm in this part of Texas with grave consequences. In April of 2012, workers traveling along Texas 792 in the back of a truck bed were ejected when the truck hit a pot hole. Two were killed.
But it’s not just the road conditions causing car accidents and fatalities in the East Ford Shale Region. According to the Center of Disease Control the single […]
Picture shows a recent Accident in Three Rivers Live Oak County that cost the lives of three oilfield workers. DPS suspects driver fatigue. Picture credit: KZTV