A chain collision on Beltway 8 left two people dead and four others injured.  The accident occurred in the morning hours when a dump truck owned by Global Waste Services smashed into several other vehicles at a toll plaza on Beltway 8, according to Harris County deputies.

More specifically, the trash truck hit an extended cab truck with four passengers and then it crashed into a gold Honda in which a Precinct 4 deputy constable and his wife were riding.  The incident did not end there as the dump truck continued on, slamming into a pickup truck that had stopped at the toll plaza.  Eventually, the dump truck crashed into a concrete barrier and ignited.

A witness to the crash, Brian McKinney, recounts that there were flames several hundred feet in front of and behind the truck.  He stated that the accident “caught everything on fire.”  In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that there were fatalities.  Both the dump truck driver and the pickup truck driver died at the scene of the collision from their injuries.  Other injured individuals were transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital in serious condition.

Investigators do not yet know what caused the chain wreck, although they have offered a theory.  Captain Ronnie Glaze with the Precinct 4 Constable’s Office suggested that
it looks like he either lost control or struck those vehicles and as result of striking the first one hit the remaining two vehicles.”

Chain collisions such as this one typically occur on high capacity and high speed routes such as freeways, and they are one of the deadliest forms of traffic accidents.

There is video evidence of the collision, which investigators will undoubtedly use to assist in their investigation.