New Year's Eve Car Wreck in Houston

I should probably say first that my older brother, Mark, is home from the hospital now.

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Two killed in multiple-car accident
Friday, January 01, 2010
by Sonia Azad

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Police say a driver veered into oncoming traffic on Highway 6 early this morning, causing a double fatal accident.

Police say around 3:50am, the driver of a Crown Victoria was driving north on Highway 6 just south of Bear Creek Park when he veered into oncoming traffic. There was one driver who did swerve to avoid the collision, but behind that vehicle, the driver of a pickup truck didn't get out of the way fast enough.

That Crown Victoria driver struck the pickup truck head-on. A white Lexus was behind that pickup truck then struck the pickup. The Crown Victoria ricocheted off the pickup truck, striking an Escalade.

"It's a pretty big scene. The point of impact was pretty hard. There are gouge marks on the roadway. There is debris scattered all over the place," said Sgt. Ignacio Izaguirre with the Houston Police Department. "The pickup truck flipped over and that created all kinds of debris, as well. There were other vehicles involved, so it's kind of scattered all over the place."

Five people were taken to area hospitals, two by Life Flight. The drivers of the Dodge pickup and the Crown Victoria died at the scene. Police say they searched the cars but didn't find any evidence of alcohol. Now, they'll await toxicology reports to confirm that.

The Medical Examiner's office identified one of the victim as 32-year-old Benjamin Arnold. The other victim hasn't been identified yet.

All six lanes of Highway 6 were closed for several hours.
(Copyright ©2010 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)



New Years Eve, Mark was watching videos over at a buddy's house. Then one of his friends started to drive him home. They were in a truck on highway 6 in Houston. There are no concrete dividers between the Eastbound and Westbound lanes. A car crossed into the lane, going the wrong direction around 80mph strait at the truck Mark was a passenger in.

They hit head-on, flipped the truck, then the truck was hit in the rear by a second car. Both drivers from the head-on collision died at the scene. Mark was the only passenger in the truck. The truck's driver was wearing my brother's military-issued peacoat when he died.

Mark was life-flighted to the hospital. It's a miracle he lived, and only has a cut above his eye and LOTS of body aches. X-rays ruled out broken bones, but Mark was still hurting badly, so they also gave him an MRI to check on his ligaments. His bones and muscles are intact; but he's still super achy. He was wearing a neck brace for the first 2 days. His jaw and back hurt a lot.

The docs kept him in the hospital from the morning of New Year's Day until tonight (Jan 4th) because he had a 102.8 fever that wouldn't die down. At first they thought he may have pneumonia, but chest X-rays ruled that out.

My mom reminded the hospital staff that Mark has rheumatoid arthritis. Then the docs decided that the wreck caused Mark's arthritis to have a flare-up and that's what induced the fever. Once he was switched to arthritis medication, his pain level was better than before. They released Mark tonight and some friends drove him home. When I spoke to him, he still sounded super achy. He said the doc wrote him some prescriptions that he'll need to get filled.

Mom and Mark have both talked to Mark's manager at work. It sounds like his job is safe. We are all still waiting to hear if the driver who caused the accident had insurance.