News 8 Investigates

Brett Shipp reports

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ERA, Texas — This entire North Texas community is upset over traffic accidents that residents say could have been prevented.

It's a concern that News Eight first reported last September in this tiny Cooke County town twelve miles outside of Gainesville. Now — much to the horror of residents — it has happened again.

Townspeople in Era don't blame drivers; they say Texas Railroad Commissioners are at fault for awarding an operating permit at a site that puts the driving public at risk.

No one is more aware of that risk than 18-year-old Shawn Reza, who survived a violent traffic accident two weeks ago on a narrow stretch of Highway 51 outside of Era.

"There was an 18-wheeler slowing down to turn, so we just slowed down right behind them," he said. "Then another car came in from the back and hit us in the back right corner."

Three people were hurt and taken to local hospitals; two of them were children.

The accident was caused when a tanker truck attempted to turn in to a natural gas wastewater disposal site — a site that this past year the entire town of Era traveled to Austin to protest.

The main concern was that slow-turning truck traffic would create accidents on a highway where the posted speed limit is 70.

Despite the protests, Texas Railroad Commissioners this summer voted to award a permit to operate, allowing the truck traffic to increase.

Then, two weeks later — on June 14 — the fears of Era residents became reality.

A pickup truck crashed while trying to avoid a tanker turning into the disposal site. It was exactly what local paramedic Seth Taylor had feared and predicted.

"This is absolutely another accident waiting to happen," Taylor said.

On November 24, it happened again.

Keith McIntosh, who lives next door to the wastewater injection well, was on the scene with his video camera seconds after it happened.

His commentary can be heard on the recording. At one point, McIntosh says, "The Texas Railroad Commission doesn't care."

McIntosh now expresses his disgust with a governmental body that gives no weight to a traffic hazard that has twice posed a threat to public safety.

"We tried to pitch all of this to the Railroad Commission and they turned a blind eye," McIntosh said. "I don't know what 'public interest' is if you have your whole community saying, 'No, this is bad, and here's the valid reasons.'"

Current Railroad Commission policy is not to consider traffic concerns when awarding a permit.

The permit holder has now pledged to spend his own money to build turn lanes for his tankers.

But for local residents, as long as dozens of trucks are slowing and turning at the same spot every day, it will remain a preventable tragedy waiting to happen.

"It's simply not a good place for it," McIntosh said.

E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com