Last Tuesday December 18 around 6:30 am, a red Ford F-250 traveling south on I-35 ran across the median near the weigh station, striking a Chevy 1500 driven by local man Robert Hinnant, of Moore. Hinnant suffered severe injuries in the accident, after he was hit by two different vehicles, crushing both sides of his truck. Both lanes of I-35 north were shut down until around noon.
“The F-250 came across the median and hit the Chevy truck smashing the driver’s side door in, and the impact of that pushed him across the truck, and that’s when he was hit a second time, crushing the passenger side door in as well. A state trooper was also hit as he tried to stop and help.”
Hinnant was transported in critical condition, with internal injuries, but is thankfully recovering in the hospital according to his wife.
His wife Kim Hinnant stated, “JD (and Moore VFD), I don’t have the words to tell you how much appreciation and respect I have for first responders. Thank you so much for being there with Rob and for all you did to help save his life. Two of the bones in his arm were broken and his wrist was severely broken. Both sides of an ankle were broken. His knee was split wide open. He had a torn up thumb and lost some soft tissue as well as a broken thumb. His femur went through his hip. He has 8 broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver. They did the first surgery Tuesday. Wednesday they operated on his hip. They are unable to operate on his wrist right now because they’re waiting for the swelling to go down. He was taken out of ICU yesterday and moved moved to acute care. His spirits are good and they are trying to manage his pain levels. He is at University Hospital and I am told that is the best trauma center in this part of the country. The state trooper that came to tell me about the wreck literally had tears in his eyes and said that Rob had angels around him because people don’t live through something like this. Their investigation of the accident said that as Rob was going northbound on 35, a southbound vehicle lost control and crossed the median hitting him head on. He was then broadsided on the passenger side of his vehicle by an 18 wheeler. God has continued to reveal Himself throughout this whole ordeal. You and the men who were there working this scene are His angels on earth. Thank you with all my heart! I hope one day I get to shake your hand and hug you!”
“There were total of 5 vehicles involved in this accident, including a Ford pickup truck, Chevy pickup, a Jeep, a State Trooper, and a big rig. Four people transported, but only one man appeared to be severely injured. We had four ambulances on scene that morning from all of the surrounding towns,” said Moore Chief JD Earls.
Heavy fog and heavy traffic backing up resulted in yet another accident that morning.
“We had to extricate the driver of the Chevy pickup who was trapped inside his vehicle. We removed both doors and rolled the dash back, which took about 15-20 minutes to get him out. Just as we were finishing the extrication, another two vehicle accident occurred about a half mile south of us, as a result of the pileup and heavy fog which made it really hard to see that morning.”
It’s about 40-50 feet from I-35 South to I-35 North, and right now in many places there’s nothing but green grass separating this busy interstate in our area. These kinds of accidents on I-35, where we are seeing vehicles traveling at such a high rate of speed and crossing the median into oncoming traffic are especially dangerous, and often fatal as we saw in a horrible accident just a few weeks ago in the Natalia area of I-35. This accident last Tuesday the second one of its nature in just the past few weeks, and we are very lucky that no one lost a life.
“I have heard that TxDot has started the process of planning to install cable barriers in the center median of I-35 going through Frio and Medina County, and we are really glad to hear that,” Chief Earls said.
Thanks to all the first responders, and especially the firemen who are all volunteers, always there to respond to emergencies in our time of need.
Moore Fire, Devine Fire, Devine PD, Frio County Sheriff’s Office, Allegiance EMS, State Troopers all responded and Tx Dot assisted in closing the highway.
As of this past Sunday, there is an ambulance stationed in Moore with a full time crew inside the fire station. “It’s a floating ambulance to help with coverage here in this region due to the call volume in our area. They agreed to do this at no extra cost to Frio County since so many of the surrounding towns are contracted with Allegiance now.”
They will also be running non-emergency hospital transfers with the floating ambulance, but it is certainly a great thing to know there is another nearby in our communities.
Allegiance is now the ambulance provider for Pearsall, Dilley, Devine, Natalia, Castroville, Moore, Mico, and LaCoste.