Five hurt in four-car wreck

Published Sunday, May 4, 2008

By Chris Butler

Five people were injured in a major automobile accident Wednesday morning near the Devon Gas Plant in Bridgeport, and one of them is in critical condition at a Fort Worth hospital.

Bridgeport police have not released the name of the man they believe is responsible for the accident but said he is from Decatur and may face manslaughter charges if anyone dies because of what happened.

None of the five people injured is from Wise County, said Wesley Hughes, police spokesman.

Police said four people were traveling westbound in a car when the driver, Jose Gabriel Ortiz, 34, from Irving, tried to turn left from U.S. 380 into the gas plant, where police said the men worked, when a pickup hit them from behind. The car carrying the four men swerved into another lane as a result of the impact and hit an eastbound vehicle driven by Ricky Allen Lehman, 56, of Jacksboro, head on, Hughes said.

The four men in the car were flown to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

Ortiz was in fair condition at JPS Friday, but two of his passengers, Marcos Salvador Amezcua, 34, of Fort Worth, and Juan Miguel Torres, 29, of Bernice, La., were in critical condition in the ICU ward Friday morning, said Kelly Owen, spokeswoman for the hospital. Torres' condition was upgraded to serious Friday afternoon, said Stacy Mensik, another hospital spokeswoman.

Owen would not comment on a statement from police that one of the men lost a foot after the accident.

Owen didn't have information about the fourth passenger, Santos Cervantes Garcia, 56, no address given, but Hughes said he was in good condition at the hospital.

Lehman, meanwhile, was taken to Wise Regional Health System with minor chest pains related to the deployment of his air bag and was released. The driver of the pickup, the man who police believe caused the accident, was not injured, Hughes added.

The accident happened in front of Dawn Fuller's home on U.S. 380. Fuller was getting ready for work Wednesday morning when she heard the crash.

"I heard a loud boom and at first I thought something had hit the side of the house. I looked outside and saw what happened and got on the phone and immediately called 911. There were cars everywhere," Fuller said.

Drivers of three other vehicles witnessed the accident but left the scene before they could give statements to police. Witnesses who were involved in the accident gave police conflicting statements - Hughes said he believed the driver of the pickup lied about what happened.

Police then learned that video surveillance from the gas plant captured the accident in its entirety, Hughes said.

"It was just by chance that this is where the accident occurred and that the gas plant has video cameras going 24 hours a day," Hughes said.

Alcohol was not a contributing factor in the accident, and the driver of the pickup has a good driving record, he added.

"If any of these individuals die then there could be some criminal charges, so we're not releasing the name of the truck driver yet. I would say everything that happened if these men were all out of ICU," Hughes said.

A fourth vehicle going westbound hit the pickup from behind after the pickup hit the car carrying the four men, although the driver of that car was not injured, Hughes said.

The driver of the pickup will probably receive a traffic citation if no one dies as a result of the accident. Police would probably charge the man with manslaughter if someone dies, Hughes said.