A spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation tells KFDM News cable barriers will be expanded in Southeast Texas, and he says they prevented a charter bus and tractor trailer from crossing into the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 after they collided on I-10 West near Winnie.

48 passengers waited on a Coach USA charter bus to return to Houston after a trip home from the Coushatta Casino, while workers loaded a second bus onto a wrecker.

A few passengers on the bus complained of minor injuries.  A spokesman from the Texas Department of Transportation says without the cable barrier it might have been a different story

“This here, you can imagine if the cable barrier wasn’t in place, would’ve had wreck with possibly many fatalities,” says Marc Shepherd with the Texas Department of Transportation.

The passengers were on this bus at about 6 this morning when troopers say the driver made an unsafe lane change and an 18 wheeler clipped the back end.

Minutes later a pick-up truck driver struck a second 18 wheeler. The driver had stopped to direct traffic.

The pick up driver was flown to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth with head injuries.

This barrier put in place by Tx-Dot kept the bus and truck from crossing the median.

“Recently installed within the last one or two months. So we have areas to tweak,” says Shepherd.

While workers tightened the cable, tow trucks removed the wrecked vehicles and drivers continued on their way.

TxDot is looking at expanding the cable system another 18 miles, from Winnie to Beaumont, to make roadways safer.

“You’re looking at this, what it did today, goes to show you doing another area, like the Goodyear plant where we’ve had a lot of wrecks and fatalities and hopefully that will prevent it from happening,” says Shepherd.

Preventing accidents along Texas roadways and saving lives.

Troopers say the pick-up truck driver is in serious but stable condition.

No one on the bus was seriously hurt.

Tx-Dot plans to install more cable barriers from Winnie to Beaumont in the next 6 months.