A crash between an 18-wheeler, a DART handicapped bus and a pickup truck closed Interstate 30 westbound east of downtown for almost seven hours and injured three people.
According to Dallas police, the driver of the truck was on the service road near East Grand Avenue at about 11 a.m. when he then decided he needed on the highway, entrance ramp or not.
"Instead of entering the highway via the entrance ramp, it would try and negotiate the steep embankment just before it," said Dallas Fire Rescue's Jason Evans in a prepared statement. "It managed to not only climb the hill, but also clear a 2 -3 foot guard rail."
The truck collided with the 18-wheeler, who then veered to the other side of the highway where it was rear-ended by the DART bus. The pickup truck ended up about 25 yards away from the point of impact, police said.
"The driver of the white pick-up, an unidentified male, was taken to Parkland Hospital, as were two passengers from the DART vehicle, a 61 year-old male and a 66 year-old female. All were transported with non-life threatening injuries," said Evans.
The stretch of highway reopened shortly before 6 p.m. The road was closed so an overhead sign that was struck could be secured and repaired.
A hazmat team earlier cleaned up fuel spilled during the crash.
The collision caused traffic to back up in both directions. At 2 p.m., westbound traffic was backed up to Interstate 635 while eastbound lanes moved slowly because of onlookers.
