Source: chron.com

For the better part of one furious hour Tuesday afternoon, Houston Fire Department rescue workers tore, cut and picked their way through the rubble of an old southside motel undergoing renovation, hoping to reach the three workers trapped below before it was too late.

They rescued two in short order, but the third was dead by the time they got to him, crushed by hundreds of pounds of lumber and concrete.

“I’d say it was mostly a success,” said Capt. Richard Cole, head of the HFD rescue team. “We did the best we could.”

Police and rescue personnel arrived at the old HouTex Inn in the 6300 block of the Gulf Freeway around 4:15 to find workers standing beside a collapsed building. Using dogs, special cameras and “most of the toys in the toolbox,” Cole said, rescuers cut through the old roof, drilled an inspection hole and located the space where two of the workers had managed to avoid serious injury. The third victim was found about 20 feet away.

Cole said the construction workers were replacing joists on the first floor when the top floor began to shift sideways. Within seconds the roof and supporting structures started to lean, ultimately toppling and collapsing the building, he said. Rescuers had to work their way down, cutting through the roof, supporting trusses, beams and a lightweight concrete floor before reaching the area where the workers were trapped.

The building contained no structural steel. Cole said there was little bracing to stop the lateral movement of the second floor when it began to lean.

Police have identified the dead man as Ramiro Sigala, 24, of Houston. The names of the injured had not been released by this afternoon. The two survivors were taken to local hospitals with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

A representative from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration was at the site after the collapse but declined to comment. The federal agency regulates workplace safety.

Houston homicide Sgt. Robert Torres also inspected the scene and said there was no reason to believe the worker’s death was anything other than an industrial accident.

One of the construction supervisors on the site, John Braxton, said four men were working on the building that collapsed. One jumped to safety before it fell. Braxton said all the men were good employees and hard workers.

“You try to be safe, you try to do what’s right, but in a split second somebody is gone,” Braxton said.

With assistance from the city of Houston, the erstwhile motel is being renovated to low-income housing. Before it closed, the HouTex Inn was an establishment that city officials referred to as one of the worst “hot sheet” motels, a haven for drug-dealing and prostitution.

New Hope Housing, the city’s partner on the 149-room apartment complex, bought the inn and hired Camden Builders to rehab it beginning in January. When finished, the small, single-room apartments will be rented to the newly homeless, said Richard Celli, the city’s director of housing and community development.

The project has received about $8 million in low-income-housing tax credits through a state program that allows builders to take an old building “down to the studs” and renovate it into usable housing. The credits are sold to companies and the proceeds from those sales, as well as money raised from philanthropy, are used to rehab the complex, Celli said.

The grants were awarded in a competitive application process, he said.

Source: dallasnews.com

Biker Bobby Gassett had a new patch pinned to his vest Tuesday, with red letters on a white background: “Life Behind Bars, Lion King Chuck, 1936-2009.”The bars referred to handlebars, and Chuck was Chuck King, killed Thursday night after a car hit him on LBJ Freeway in Garland. He fell and was run over by an 18-wheeler.

“It’s a testimony to Chuck,” rider Mike Malloy said of the turnout. He said it would be the biggest ride ever out of Keller’s even though it was on a weekday.

Malloy helped some other Rat Packers lash one of King’s motorcycles to a trailer for the run to the funeral home that would then make its way to one of King’s favorite eateries.

At Keller’s, Shanda Renee Wooten sat in the back seat of a car parked near the curb. The 34-year-old bike model from Lufkin said she was there when King died, riding just ahead of him.

“It’s customary for the woman to ride behind,” said Wooten, who said she was visiting King.

But for some reason, King opted to follow her this time. They didn’t have far to go.

” ‘I’m following you,’ he said,” Wooten remembered. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ ”

After the crash, Wooten said, the driver of the car stopped.

“She stopped for about two seconds,” Wooten said. “She heard me say, ‘You killed him!’ ”

Then the car sped away, she said.

Garland police have charged Tasha Hayes, 18, of Richardson with failure to stop and render aid, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

There will be more events for King on April 26, when his friends ride again.

They plan to leave Keller’s at noon for a ride on Northwest Highway and LBJ Freeway to Fat Dawg’s in Forney, another of King’s hangouts.

On the way, they will pay their respects near the spot where King died and at a second place where another Rat Pack biker, Bart Miller, was killed in January.

Among the bikers assembled Tuesday, few could be found who hadn’t been in wrecks.

Richie Brice of Dallas said he came back from Vietnam without a scratch, but a too-long stare at a woman sent him tumbling end over end, landing with his bike on top of him.

That was the first of his three wrecks. It left him “bent over” for six months, but he had the bike rebuilt and got back on.

Mitch Hanson, a recently retired mail carrier from Garland, said he has been riding motorcycles since he was 15 and never had a wreck until he slid off a road in Arkansas in 2006.

That hasn’t stopped him from riding.

“You can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s a rush.”

Brice is fatalistic about riding.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a helmet or not,” said Brice, who does wear one. “If it’s your time to go, you’re going to go.”

Hanson agreed, saying, “There is no safe way to ride one of these things.”

Source: dallasnews.com

A 28-year-old Arlington man died after being thrown from his motorcycle Monday on State Highway 161 in Irving, authorities said today.

Charles Black was going too fast when he hit a retaining wall on the southbound 161 ramp to westbound State Highway 183 Monday afternoon, Irving police said. He was thrown from his bike, fell over the barrier and landed 30 feet below. The motorcycle continued down the ramp

Black, who was wearing a helmet, was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where he died.

Authorties shut down southbound lanes of 161 to westbound 183 on Monday to investigate the accident.

Source: dallasnews.com

Authorities shut down a portion of State Highway 161 in Irving this afternoon after a motorcyclist was seriously injured near the southbound exit ramp to State Highway 183.

Irving police said a man in his late 20s or early 30s was ejected from the motorcycle and thrown over a retaining wall shortly after 12:30 p.m. today. The man was taken Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas with serious internal injuries. Authorities did not release his identity.

It was unclear whether other vehicles were involved.

Southbound lanes of Highway 161 from Rochelle Road to westbound Highway 183 were closed this afternoon, but have since reopened, according to Traffic Pulse.

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.

A 74-year-old motorist in the San Antonio area died in an accident involving a freight train.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says the woman was killed Friday morning when her car got stuck on some railroad tracks near Cibolo (SEE’-boh-loh).

DPS Trooper Richard Salinas says the woman apparently did not hear the signal from the crossing arms as they went down or the horn sounded by the Union Pacific train.

DPS says the train hit the car, which struck the elderly victim, who had gotten out of her vehicle.

Source: chron.com

Hit and run motorcycle accident killed Charles King.

Source: nbcdfw.com

The 72-year-old Dallas resident was killed in a hit and run accident in Garland on I-635 near Centerville Road.

King may have looked like the rough and tumble biker, but his friends say he was a joker and a good friend.

“He’s what we call 24-hour friends. He was a friend at two in the morning or two in the afternoon,” said King’s friend Troy Duncan.

King and his biker buddies called themselves the “Keller’s Rat Pack,” only because they always gathered at Keller’s Hamburgers in East Dallas for Friday night burgers and beer.

King’s girlfriend of five years, Sandy Seibert, says King gave pointers on getting back behind the handle bars of a motorcycle.

“I lost my leg on my motorcycle in 2001 and he just gave me the confidence to be back on the bike again,” Seibert said. “He was a fantastic guy. What guy would want to go with a one-legged girl? You know? He was a true sport.” she added.

While King’s friend plan his memorial, Garland police are trying to find the driver responsible. Investigators say, they don’t have much to go on, all they can identify is that it was a dark colored car.

If you might have seen something, you can call Garland police at 972-272-8477.

The passenger side of her SUV was completely smashed by the shipping container just before 11am Thursday near Highway 59 and Highway 288. The woman was sent to the hospital, but doesn’t appear to be seriously hurt.

The giant container on the back of a flatbed truck struck the overpass above, sending it flying off the truck onto the SUV below. The whole right side of the SUV was smashed in.

Somehow, the woman who was driving the mangled car, identified by family as Zoma Ramirez, escaped with her life.

“I think she’s lucky,” said Robert Weistloch, the woman’s son-in-law. “Luckily it fell on the passenger’s side.”

The container, according to its owner, General Marine Leasing, was a portable galley, used for cooking offshore. It was being transported from Louisiana to Brownsville.

The company transporting that container, Dynasty Trucking, refused to comment about the accident. The owners of the container say this is the second time the company has damaged their vessels attempting to travel cross country.

According to General Marine, trucking companies must submit for a permit before hitting the roads, reporting their cargo heights to the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT then provides an approved route based on those height restrictions.

It’s unclear if those procedures were followed in this case.

Houston police say the driver of the 18-wheeler will receive numerous tickets. TxDOT says it appears this truck was off-route. They say they don’t typically issue permits for oversized loads inside the 610 Loop.

Family members say Ramirez often traveled the route along Highway 59 several times per week and often alone. Her relatives say she was undergoing a CT scan after the accident to see if she had any internal injuries.

This is the second time in two weeks that a driver escaped serious injury after her vehicle was crushed. The collision between two Houston fire trucks sent one of them rolling onto a car. The driver in that car was able to get out of the truck on her own, but says she still has lower body pain. In all 11 people were injured. Leigh Boone, who was hit by one of the trucks while riding her bike, is the only one left in the hospital.

Source: abclocal.go.com

Source: kten.com

KTEN’s Katy Blakey broke the news Saturday night on KTEN News at 10: Authorities are investigating a major accident and a house fire in Calera.

KTEN has confirmed one person is dead following an accident involving a Bryan County Sheriff’s Office patrol cruiser. We’re told the patrol unit hit a pedestrian who was crossing Highway 69/75. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.

Traffic in both the north and southbound lanes of Highway 69/75 were blocked for some time. Calera Police are still investigating.

Source: dallasnews.com

A 19 year old Angelina College student was killed Monday night while trying to cross Highway 59 south near the college.

According to police reports, 21 year old Christopher Salazar of Sugarland was driving his car southbound on south First Street (Highway 59 south) in the inside lane when 19 year old Brandon Hart of Woodville was crossing the highway on foot and ran out in front of traffic.

Police say Salazar swerved, but was unable to avoid colliding with Hart. Hart was transported to Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The accident happened about 8:57 Monday night in the3500 block of south First (Highway 59 south).

A spokesman for Angelina College tells KTRE, Hart was in his Freshman year of college at A-C.