November 7, 2000 was the last deathless day on Texas roadways
AUSTIN – It was late in the afternoon when Isaac Simmons got the call: a vehicle was broken down along a stretch of I-45 in Fairfield, and Simmons, a 35-year-old tow truck driver, headed out to help.
While winching the car onto his tow truck, the routine stop suddenly became horrific. A speeding car careened off the road, rolled up the tow truck’s sliding bed and flew through the air. The airborne car slammed into Simmons. Two days later he died, making him one of more than 3,200 people who have been killed on Texas roads so far in 2021.
“He was one of the best men I’ve ever known. He always wanted to make everybody smile,” said Nathan Bryant, a fellow tow truck driver who considered Simmons a brother. “Sometimes it can be a little dicey out there because nobody moves over, nobody slows down. They don’t care about human life on the side of the road.”
This November 7, Texas marks 21 years of daily deaths on our roadways with more than 75,000 innocent lives lost to preventable fatal crashes. For the past several years, about 10 people have died every day in crashes in the state. During the height of the pandemic when traffic dropped nearly 50%, the death rate climbed to more than 11 a day, shocking state transportation leaders.
Texas Transportation Commissioner Laura Ryan, a champion for road safety and TxDOT’s #EndTheStreakTX campaign, said every Texan must do their part. And while the goal of ending the deadly streak is ambitious, Ryan said, it is far from impossible.
“We stick with it. We keep telling the story. We fight back when people say personal responsibility is not a thing. It is. And we don’t give up,” Ryan said. “I am hopeful that it will happen sooner than later, but I am confident that it will happen.”
Most crashes and fatalities are preventable and caused by things such as speeding, drunk driving and distracted driving. That’s why the approach to reaching zero deaths must be through what TxDOT calls the 3 E’s – engineering, education and enforcement. That way, everyone has a responsibility to keep our roads and fellow drivers safe.
Because #EndTheStreakTX is a social media, grassroots and word-of-mouth effort, Texans are being asked to do any or all the following to raise awareness:
- Make the best and safest decisions behind the wheel and encourage others to do the same.
- Post pictures on social media with this downloadable sign displaying the hashtag #EndTheStreakTX.
- Share personal stories on social media of loved ones who have been lost in a crash and use the hashtag #EndTheStreakTX.
- Follow @txdot social media pages and share the content we post.
FOR MEDIA: Please see the 4 links at the bottom of this press release that have the following downloadable, high-resolution interviews and videos that can be used in TV, radio, print and online news stories:
- An interview with Texas Transportation Commissioner Laura Ryan who speaks about this important issue;
- An interview with a family friend of a tow truck driver who was hit and killed by someone who was speeding;
- An interview with a police officer who was struck by a distracted driver and survived to talk about it;
- And the body camera video from that police officer, as well as other generic crash photos and videos.
For more information, contact Public Information Officer Ginger Wilson at 940-937-7288.