Source: chron.com

The 29-year-old bicyclist who was crushed beneath a Houston Fire Department ladder truck in an accident involving two firetrucks last month died early Saturday afternoon.

Leigh Boone was pronounced dead at 12:10 p.m., said Memorial Hermann Hospital spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez.

Boone had been in critical condition for two weeks with serious head injuries she sustained when a 40-ton ladder truck toppled and crushed her bike on March 30.

Authorities found the ladder truck driver, Warren Ducote, at fault for the crash that injured 11 people. They say he ran a red light. A police official said on Saturday it was too early to tell whether Ducote would face criminal charges.

Both Houston Fire Department trucks were en route to what firefighters thought was a blaze but turned out to be a Houston public works crew smoke-testing sewer lines.

Ducote ran a red light while headed northbound on Dunlavy and was broad-sided by a pumper truck westbound on Westheimer.

Investigators determined that the pumper truck had a green light.

Boone worked as an executive assistant at the Houston Center for Photography before her death.

In a series of interviews after the crash, family and friends described her as a “happy” and “talented” woman. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in theater arts.

“She’s a real people person. She’s never met a stranger. That’s why she has so many friends in the Monntrose area,” said her brother George Boone.

Family and friends were gathered around her when she died, according to a family Web site that has been chronicling her ordeal.

On a Facebook.com page dedicated to Boone, friends mourned Boone’s passing.

“This is devastating. If anyone could have pulled through this, it would have been Leigh. I am so deeply, deeply sorry,” wrote Casey Radle from Austin.

An elderly school crossing guard in Dallas died after being hit by a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver.

Dallas police identified the victim of Tuesday morning’s accident as 71-year-old Franklin Delano Lester. Moments before he was struck, Lester had escorted a woman and a child in a stroller across the street.

Police say the driver, 52-year-old Peter Nelson, was transported to a Dallas hospital and was in critical condition. Nelson’s car struck the victim’s personal vehicle after hitting Lester.

Investigators suspect the car was speeding when Lester was struck in an area near an elementary school.

Cpl. Gerardo Monreal said Nelson faces a charge of felony intoxication manslaughter.

Source: chron.com

A minor collision involving an off-duty Houston police officer and a school bus brought traffic to a standstill on northbound North Freeway at rush hour today, officials said.

The accident has since been cleared and the northbound lanes of  the freeway near Gulf Bank have been reopened to traffic. At one point, motorists were being forced to exit at Highway 249, diverted to the frontage road and allowed to re-enter to the freeway at the next entrance.

Houston Transtar officials said the school bus was rear-ended by the police officer. The bus suffered no significant damage and none of the students on board was injured. But traffic was brought to a virtual standstill for almost an hour.

To make matters worse, a motorist watching the accident scene while driving in the HOV lane rear-ended another vehicle, bringing traffic there to a stop and trapping cars between the barricades. An ambulance was dispatched because of reported injuries in the second incident. The damaged cars have been pushed to the side and the HOV lane is moving again.

Source: chron.com

Source: chron.com

A preliminary investigation indicates a Houston Fire Department ladder truck ran a red light before colliding with a pumper truck in a Montrose intersection Monday morning, a Houston Police Department spokesman said today.

Both trucks were en route to what had been reported as a possible fire in the 2100 block of San Felipe when they crashed at Westheimer and Dunlavy minutes before 11 a.m. Before overturning and coming to rest on a four-door Infiniti, the ladder truck struck a bicyclist and snapped an electric pole and tree. The collision injured 11 people, the bicyclist critically.

HPD accident investigators have interviewed the driver of the Infiniti, who said she was first in line at a red light on Dunlavy when the accident occurred, said police spokesman John Cannon.

Presumably, that means the ladder truck, approaching northbound on Dunlavy from the opposite side of the intersection, would also have had a red light, Cannon said.

“If that turns out to be the case, that driver would face a citation of failure to use due caution,” he said. Police identified the ladder truck driver as Warren Ducote.

Cannon said that police have not yet spoken with the drivers of either HFD truck, however, and stressed that the investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Also today, fire department officials announced that the initial fire report was prompted by smoke testing of sewer lines in the area.

Most seriously injured was Leigh Boone, 29, an executive assistant at the Houston Center for Photography, who was bicycling to work at the time of the accident. The car’s driver, 48-year-old Jotika Ramchandani, was able to stagger from her vehicle unaided, was treated at a local hospital and released.

Nine firefighters were taken to hospitals, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.

Two of them, both from Station 7, remained in hospitals today with broken bones, said Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy.

Capt. Michael Mayfield, who has been with the Fire Department for 34 years, was listed in fair condition this morning at Ben Taub General Hospital.

Brian Edwards, a 19-year veteran who was driving the pumper, was listed in good condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

“This is a bad day,” Dowdy said. “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time two firetrucks have collided in Houston. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The fire department will analyze the accident, searching for information that might be useful in training.

The department also is looking into the reason for the original report at the address on San Felipe, although a fire official said today that it was not knowingly called in as a false alarm.

“It was not a prank call,” said Capt. Beda Kent. “It was not a false alarm.”

Dowdy said the pumper, loaded with 500 gallons of water and weighing 40,000 pounds, was traveling west on Westheimer. The ladder truck was heading north on Dunlavy. Dowdy said the pumper struck the ladder truck near its rear, and both vehicles came to a stop just north of the intersection.

“Whoever has the green light has the right of way,” Dowdy said. “We don’t know who had the green.”

Also at issue is the possible role an Opticom — a device mounted at intersections to regulate traffic signals as emergency vehicles approach — played in the crash.

Only Westheimer was equipped with the device, Dowdy said.

Dowdy said investigators found no skid marks.

At the sound of the crash, residents and shoppers from blocks around were drawn to the busy intersection.

“It was the loudest sound I ever heard,” said Bernard Proctor, who was among those at the scene. “It was crazy.”

Glenn Stanton, 53, a retired restaurateur who lives about a half-block away, said the collision shook his house.

“The sirens were nonstop and the power went out immediately,” he said. “It’s quite gruesome just to see the fire engine on its side, its wheels in the air like that.”

The crash also knocked out power at nearby Lanier Middle School for about an hour.

The twisted wreckage of Boone’s bicycle protruded from the truck’s giant double wheels. A woman’s shoe lay nearby.

Scrambling to help

Luis Martinez, who pulled to the side of the street to allow the ladder truck to pass, said he ran to the scene after the wreck. One fireman was partially ejected from his truck’s cab. Martinez offered to help. But, with pavement wet from leaking water and fallen power lines sparking, the firefighter warned Martinez away lest he be electrocuted.

The collision left Dunlavy blocked until after 4 p.m., when wrecker crews succeeded in righting the 80,000-pound ladder truck by using a crane and giant, inflatable air bags.

Dowdy said the ladder truck, valued at close to $1 million, had been in service about six months; the pumper, worth roughly half as much, a year.

One man was killed and four others were seriously injured in a two-car accident in northeast Houston Saturday night, authorities said.

An unidentified man was driving a Honda Accord north in the 9800 block of Beaumont Highway around 5 p.m. when a woman in a silver Toyota Tacoma pickup truck drove into oncoming traffic, said Houston Police Department Sgt. L. Lefler.

The Honda then broadsided the Toyota, causing the pickup to drive into a ditch filled with rainwater, Lefler said.

The front passenger of the Toyota was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is pending an autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Lefler said the female driver and three children in the pickup were taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Texas Medical Center with serious injuries.

The driver of the Honda was also seriously injured and taken to Ben Taub General Hospital.

Investigators learned that a third vehicle, a silver late model “dually” pickup truck, traveling south on the road, may have made contact with the Toyota, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle, Lefler said, adding that the third vehicle fled the scene.

The case is under investigation.

No further information was immediately available.

Source: chron.com

A King Fisher Marine Service LP employee was killed today as he and crewmembers were moving a dredge in the Houston Ship Channel, a company spokesman said.

The King Fisher dredge, which works to deepen the ship channel, was being moved to a new job site when an accident with machinery aboard the dredge occurred, said Chris DeAlmeida, spokesman for the company.

“We are conducting an investigation,” DeAlmeida said.

Initial reports from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office indicated a crane aboard the dredge had struck the employee. But there is no crane aboard the dredge, according to company officials.

The accident occurred at about 11 a.m. near the San Jacinto Monument.

The crewman, whose name is being withheld until his family can be notified, died at the scene, officials said

DeAlmeida said the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were notified about the accident.

A Magnolia man died early this morning when he was thrown from his pickup after it overturned in northwest Harris County, authorities said.

The driver, 54, apparently lost control of his pickup about 1 a.m. along the 2100 block of westbound FM 2920, Harris County sheriff’s deputies said.

The driver overcorrected after veering off the right side of the road. The pickup then lurched across the road, striking several trees, authorities said.

The driver was thrown from the pickup after it flipped over. He was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

The wreck remains under investigation by Harris County sheriff’s deputies. Release of the man’s name is pending notification of his family.

A former Houston, Texas Fire Department captain was fired by Chief Boriskie who accused her of  “callous disregard for the well-being of the public”.  Reports are that Darla Reed was at an accident scene where she failed to note that a victim was still alive, according to the letter.  Darla Reed is appealing the decision of Chief Boriskie to fire her.

Darla M. Reed was placed on indefinite suspension in January after an investigation into the July wreck in which Melissa Manriquez, 18, was ejected from her Ford Explorer in southeast Houston, Texas.

Reed was the highest-ranking HFD official at the scene, on a service road in the 14100 block of the Gulf Freeway, Boriskie wrote in her termination letter.

The chief wrote that Reed asked about Manriquez’s condition and was told by emergency medical technicians that Manriquez had a faint pulse and labored breathing. They checked again, at Reed’s request, and said signs of life could no longer be detected, according to the letter.

Although Reed later told investigators that she told an ambulance crew to provide oxygen to Manriquez, the paramedics denied receiving such an order. Boriskie wrote that Reed told them to put away the medical equipment and cover Manriquez with a white sheet.

“During all this time, wrecker drivers could see the sheet moving up and down from the patient’s breathing,” the letter states.

A second HFD paramedic crew noticed the breathing and rushed Manriquez to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. She later was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, officials said.

According to the termination letter, Reed later claimed she had checked Manriquez’s carotid artery and could not find a pulse. None of the witnesses saw her touch the patient, however, Boriskie wrote.

“Ms. Reed contradicted almost everything other witnesses, both civilian and HFD members, revealed about the events of that early morning incident,” the letter states.

Reed is being represented by the Houston Professional Firefighters Association. On Jan. 15, Reed requested a hearing from the city’s civil service commission to appeal her suspension.

“I hereby deny the truth of the charges as made and take exceptions to the legal sufficiency of such charges,” she wrote. “I further state that the recommended action does not or would not fit the alleged offense.”

Reed, who joined the Fire Department in April 1990, declined to comment this morning, referring questions to her lawyer, Rick Mumey. He was not available for comment this morning.

Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, said today: ”We strongly believe that the pending appeal will further clarify what happened at that accident scene.

“That accident scene, like many that our firefighters and paramedics encounter, was tragic and chaotic, according to witness statements,” Caynon said. “I believe that our firefighters did everything they thought they could do at the time at that scene.”

He said he does not when Reed’s appeal hearing will be held.

Manriquez was pronounced dead about two hours after the crash after a LifeFlight helicopter flew her to Memorial Hermann Hospital, reports show.

An autopsy found she died from multiple blunt force injuries, including a skull fracture and brain injury.

Houston police reports said Manriquez was driving north on the freeway service road “at a high rate of speed” when she struck the curb. Her vehicle rolled over, and she was thrown out of the car.

Toxicology reports revealed she had alcohol in her system at the time of the accident, although it was not immediately clear if she was drunk.

A toxicology report showed Manriquez had 0.10 gram/deciliter of alcohol in her eye fluid, 0.06 gram/deciliter of alcohol in her bile and 0.04 gram/deciliter of alcohol in blood recovered from her chest cavity at the time of her death.

Manriquez’s autopsy report showed she suffered blunt force injuries to her head, neck, torso and extremities. She also suffered internal bleeding and a fractured rib.

Source: chron.com

In southeast Houston, Texas, emergency crews were quick to respond to reports of an overturned ambulance.

The ambulance was traveling on Highway 288 inbound when it reportedly rolled over on the highway.

Reports from the scene indicate that a firefighter and a driver in another car were taken to the hospital.

The ambulance was not carrying a patient, say pokice.

It is not known what caused the ambulance accident.

Around 2am, a driver was speeding down the Southwest Freeway feeder road near Bissonnet when he lost control of his SUV. The vehicle ran up on the curb, hitting the pole and pipe.

A rescue crew had to pull the driver from his totaled SUV. He went to the hospital and is listed as stable.

A driver took out a utility pole and a water pipe, sending water shooting into the air overnight.