DPS Trooper Talks About Tragic Accident

On a good day, being a DPS Trooper in South Texas is no picnic. Late Sunday night it got even harder. Just ask veteran DPS Trooper Gerald Bryant.

If anyone knows about highways veining through the Crossroads, it is Department of Public Safety Trooper spokesman Gerald Bryant. But what the 38-year DPS veteran saw when he drove up the dark stretch of U.S. Highway 59 in Berclair Sunday night was something he could have never imagined - a one-vehicle wreck - 11 fatalities. "I've been to a lot of accidents," Bryant told the Victoria Advocate about a wreck in which a truck transporting 23 illegal immigrants wrecked into a tree in south Goliad County. "This is one of the top ones (wrecks) I've ever been to." In all, 14 have died, 11 at the scene and three in area hospitals.

Most fatal highway wrecks tend to be single-vehicle, often caused by impairment of some sort, particularly on stretches of highway that curve, Bryant said. Bryant never expected anything of this magnitude, he said. On his way to the wreck, he heard seven had died, but upon arriving he learned 11 were dead. "It's an extreme shock," he said. "Something like this is not common at all ... but it's a job that you have to do."

KIXS 108 says thank you to Trooper Bryant and all of our law enforcement officers for the tough job they do and the way they do it. Our thoughts and prayers also go out to the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic accident.