HOUSTON – Avoiding debris is part of driving on Houston roadways, but this time a loose box resulted in a deadly accident. It happened on the Gulf Freeway near Edgebrook in southeast Houston.  

“One vehicle was in the exit lane exit.  He went to avoid a box that was in the roadway, and when he did he lost control,” said Officer R.D. Lewis of the Houston Police Department.

All it took was one man losing control to escalate the situation.  From behind him, a car swerved to the right. Then, a pickup truck swerved to the left, all in order to avoid a box filled with piping insulation.

While the vehicles avoided hitting the box, then didn’t avoid hitting each.  They collided and skidded off the highway.

“He struck the truck that's on the freeway, and then they both came off the service road,” said Lewis.

But the accident didn’t end there.  In the line of the collision course was an unsuspecting contract worker.  The Transportation Department worker was standing in the median cleaning up the highway.  He was 27-years-old and had only been on the job for two weeks.

“He was collecting trash like normal.  They struck him and carried him onto a service road,” said Lewis.

Over the past few years, steel posts, pieces of wood, hunks of iron, and even flying tires have come crashing through windshields and bouncing off cars, all because somebody didn’t secure their load.  Today’s accident proved there is so much more to lose.

No charges have been filed at this time.  Police are looking for the person responsible for dropping the box on the highway. If anyone has any information on the accident, give HPD a call.