DPS: Driver intoxicated in wreck that killed 3
Kingwood Observer // Kingwood News
April 23, 2016 Updated: Oct. 5, 2016 7:24 a.m.
Law enforcement examine the three-vehicle crash scene where three people died and one child was injured Friday on Texas 105 East near South Walker Road.
2of3Three people died and one child was injured after a three-vehicle crash Friday on Texas 105 East near South Walker Road.Michael MinasiShow MoreShow Less
CUT AND SHOOT — The driver of an 18-wheeler witnesses say slammed into four cars, killing three and injuring a child, is facing intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault charges, police say.
The Department of Public Safety charged Chad Fletcher, 37, whom troopers say was driving while allegedly intoxicated when he crashed into the vehicles.
Witnesses say a heavy-load convoy slowed down westbound traffic on Texas 105 around 11 a.m. when Fletcher's 18-wheeler — also traveling west — rammed into multiple cars, pushing one almost a hundred feet away and into a wooded area.
"The whole line of traffic was stopped," said Gordon Zentz, who witnessed the crash. "I heard a crunch and then brakes. I looked in my rearview mirror and I could see the semi pushing that car."
Witnesses said Fletcher initially hit a light-colored Mercedes sedan, which then crashed into a dark-colored Cadillac sedan, witnesses said. Two people inside the Mercedes died on scene.
Two people in the Cadillac, witnesses say, were a woman and an infant. They were taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center, medics said.
The woman later died at the hospital, according to Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Director Jared Cosper. He also said the infant boy was taken from CRMC to Texas Children's Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in an unknown condition.
Witnesses on scene said Army veteran Ted Foley helped officers pull the child out of the Cadillac. He said the sound of the crash shook his nearby house.
"We could hear (the child) screaming, so I climbed on top," Foley said. "(The officer) grabbed one side, and I grabbed another. The roof … was all mangled. We could see the baby right there."
Foley said he did what he thought anybody else would do in that situation.
"There were people hurt," Foley said. "I went straight across first to the 18-wheeler. There were people up there saying he was alright. The two in the car were gone, and then they said there were some other people over here, so we just ran up."
Frank McGuier, who was driving a pickup truck immediately in front of the Cadillac, narrowly escaped injury and heavy damage.
"The Cadillac hit me in the back, and then I bumped the lady in front of me," he said. "The next thing you know when the Cadillac hit me, (the 18-wheeler) is going alongside me and then he veered off sideways and the little car went in the woods."
Fletcher was in stable condition as of 3:30 p.m., Cosper said.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, Cut and Shoot Fire Department, Montgomery County Hospital District, North Montgomery County Fire Department, the District Attorney's Office and Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace James Metts were on scene.
The names of the victims have yet to be released.
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