Driver Charged With DWI After Crash Injures 3 Firefighters
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The driver of a pickup truck involved in an early Monday morning crash that that injured three firefighters was charged with driving while intoxicated.
The firefighters were hurt while responding to a car crash in north Fort Worth early Monday morning. The incident happened at around 3:00 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate-35W, close to Golden Triangle Boulevard.
According to battalion chief Richard Harrison, the workers were responding to a crash when a second crash occurred at the same location. Their fire truck was blocking the original crash scene when a speeding pickup truck slammed into a police squad car that was also at the scene. That impact caused the pickup truck to flip and send the squad car into the fire truck.
The police car was unoccupied at the time of the crash and no police officers were hurt. But that second crash did injure three firefighters and the driver of the vehicle that struck the squad car.
"It looked like the police car suffered significant damage," said Harrison. "Fortunately, nobody was there at the time of the incident."
The hurt firefighters were transported to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth and have been treated and released. The pickup truck driver was treated at the scene. He was later identified as 26-year-old Armando O. Rodriguez.
Along with being charged with DWI, Rodriguez was issued citations for failing to vacate his lane and failing to control his speed to avoid a collision. He was still behind bars on Monday afternoon, but expected to bond out by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, this incident slowed traffic in north Fort Worth throughout early Monday morning, while emergency crews were at the scene. The highway has since reopened and cars are moving smoothly through the area once again.