TxDOT puts up flashing lights on intersection

Flashing beacon lights and rumble strips were among the new safety measures taken by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) last week at the intersection of Highway 80 and FM 466 just south of Belmont. The intersection has been the site of two fatal accidents in the last two months.

On Monday, Aug. 6, Roman Hill, public information officer for TxDOT’s Yoakum District, said that TxDOT planned to add transverse rumble strips near the “stop ahead” signs on FM 466 in both west-and eastbound lanes. Those were added that day.

TxDOT followed up by erected flashing beacons on the stop signs Thursday, Aug. 9.

“Both measures are designed to increase motorist alertness and awareness,” Hill said.

The latest tragedy at the intersection occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2, when a pickup driven by Pedro Salinas, 34, of Alice, ran a stop sign and struck an 18-wheeler driven by Michael Barnard, 32, of Seguin.

Salinas was pronounced dead at the scene and was taken to a funeral home in Nixon.

A passenger in the pickup, which investigating authorities say was traveling westbound when it struck the northbound Kenworth, suffered what the Department of Pubic Safety called “incapacitating injuries,” and was airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio. The man was identified as Sergio Domingo Rodriguez, 29.

According to the DPS report, the pickup from Tetra Technologies in Alice struck the right front side of the tractor-trailer, and was spun around twice before coming to rest in the northbound lane of Highway 80.

The 18-wheeler, registered to JM Oilfield Services, jack-knifed and skidded into the southbound ditch.

This was the second fatal crash at the intersection in less than a month. On June 3, a westbound pickup ran the stop sign and broadsided another pickup. The crash killed a 21-year-old Seguin man who was driving the westbound truck. Two men traveling southbound on Highway 80 were airlifted to a San Antonio hospital.