{"id":38577,"date":"2014-09-17T09:49:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T14:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38577"},"modified":"2014-09-17T09:49:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T14:49:43","slug":"fatigue-linked-to-dozens-of-fatal-crashes-involving-oilfield-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/09\/17\/fatigue-linked-to-dozens-of-fatal-crashes-involving-oilfield-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatigue Linked To Dozens Of Fatal Crashes Involving Oilfield Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/news\/fatigue-linked-to-dozens-of-fatal-crashes-involving-oilfield-workers\/\">From Houston Public Media:<\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_38582\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The Three Rivers ISD school bus was totaled in this accident in January 2014, after a fracking crew driver fell asleep and hit the bus. Three workers in a commercial van were killed; but the children were safe. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-38582\" alt=\"The Three Rivers ISD school bus was totaled in this accident in January 2014, after a fracking crew driver fell asleep and hit the bus. Three workers in a commercial van were killed; but the children were safe. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-300x248.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350.jpg 422w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Texas DPS photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Three Rivers ISD school bus was totaled in this accident in January 2014, after a fracking crew driver fell asleep and hit the bus. Three workers in a commercial van were killed; but the children were safe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>State Highway 72 cuts through the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The two-lane artery links oil boomtowns like Kenedy and Tilden to the Three Rivers Valero refinery. Local residents call the highway \u201cDeath Row.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery week someone dies, just about,\u201d says Steve Alaniz, a construction manager based in Three Rivers. \u201cThere\u2019s so many guys that work nights, and there\u2019s so many people getting up early. Everybody\u2019s in a hurry. The roads aren\u2019t big enough for this kind of traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/168053921&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Early on the morning of January 30, a Three Rivers school bus was pulling into an RV park off Highway 72, when a van filled with oilfield workers employed by Compass Well Services plowed into the bus\u2019s rear end. Alaniz was one of the first on the scene. He found the students safe at the front of the bus, thanks to school district policy in response to the heavy traffic.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then I went to the van,\u201d Alaniz says, \u201cand there was an RN there and two other guys that were pulling out of the trailer park. And we got all the guys out that were alive, and three of them were just dead when it happened, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38581\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Killed in the triple tragedy on State Route 72 in January 2014 were Daniel Zambrano, of Kilgore, Jose Rios of San Antonio and Martin Aguirre of Brownsville. All three men had completed a 24-hour shift before they were killed on their way to place to rest. Four others riding in the van suffered injuries after the driver fell asleep and struck a school bus. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-dps.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-38581\" alt=\"Killed in the triple tragedy on State Route 72 in January 2014 were Daniel Zambrano, of Kilgore, Jose Rios of San Antonio and Martin Aguirre of Brownsville. All three men had completed a 24-hour shift before they were killed on their way to place to rest. Four others riding in the van suffered injuries after the driver fell asleep and struck a school bus. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-dps-300x201.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-dps-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/622x350-dps.jpg 521w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Texas DPS photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Killed in the triple tragedy on State Route 72 in January 2014 were Daniel Zambrano, of Kilgore, Jose Rios of San Antonio and Martin Aguirre of Brownsville. All three men had completed a 24-hour shift before they were killed on their way to place to rest. Four others riding in the van suffered injuries after the driver fell asleep and struck a school bus.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The dead included driver Daniel Zambrano and passengers Martin Aguirre and Joe Rios. The men had just come off a 24-hour shift. According to the Department of Public Safety\u2019s accident report, Zambrano didn\u2019t even apply his brakes, indicating severe fatigue.<\/p>\n<p>The crash came just a year after another accident involving a Compass crew driving home after a long shift \u2014 also in the Eagle Ford, also resulting in multiple deaths. Compass did not return calls requesting comment.<\/p>\n<p>Texas Mutual Insurance is the state\u2019s biggest workers\u2019 compensation underwriter. It says oil and gas companies filed 24 claims for fatal auto accidents from January through July of this year. That\u2019s up from eight for all of 2009.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see a high incidence of motor vehicle operators who\u2019ve worked fourteen hour shifts, driving down the road and falling asleep at the wheel,\u201d says Woody Hill, Texas Mutual\u2019s vice president for safety services.<\/p>\n<p>DPS accident reports cite fatigue as a contributing cause in dozens of recent fatal crashes involving oilfield workers. Many wind up piling into a company van and sharing a long commute between their work site and a hotel.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2013, nine Sanjel Corporation employees were returning to their hotel, after a 12-hour night shift near Odessa. A pickup truck hit their van, killing Fernando Portillo of Tomball, Michael Vonesh of Pearland, and Jose Ponce of Canutillo, near El Paso.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hpmnews\/boom-in-oil-and-traffic-deaths\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-38580\" alt=\"boom-seriesname-02\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/boom-seriesname-02-300x150.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/boom-seriesname-02-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/boom-seriesname-02-620x310.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/boom-seriesname-02.png 833w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\u201cFatigued driving is right there on the same par as driving while intoxicated,\u201d says Alexander Gurevich, a Houston attorney representing the victims\u2019 families in a wrongful death suit. \u201cTo put men in a position of being fatigued and to be driving long distance is not something that a company should do, and it shows a disregard for the safety of their employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sanjel says the driver of the company van has testified that he was not fatigued at the time of the accident.<\/p>\n<p>Insurers like Texas Mutual are leaning on policy holders to make sure drivers are well rested before getting behind the wheel. The statistics show they\u2019re fighting an uphill battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Houston Public Media: State Highway 72 cuts through the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The two-lane artery links oil boomtowns like Kenedy and Tilden to the Three Rivers Valero refinery. Local residents call the highway \u201cDeath Row.\u201d \u201cEvery week someone dies, just about,\u201d says Steve Alaniz, a construction manager based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38577"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38585,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577\/revisions\/38585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}