Man falls out of car during Arlington accident, good Samaritans help

Arlington Police are still investigating after they say a car hit two barricades along I-20 near E. Loop 820 around 12:39 a.m. on Wednesday, leaving one man dead.

Police said they responded to the scene after several drivers called 911 "to report they may have struck a person who was in the roadway."

Officers found the remains of a man and weren't able to immediately identify him.

On Thursday, they told NBC 5 investigators had a chance to speak with the driver involved in the crash, who provided them with the passenger's name.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will confirm the victim's identity and then notify his next of kin, said a police department spokesperson.

Police said the driver told them he initially swerved to avoid a car that had pulled in front of him, though investigators are still working to corroborate those claims.

Investigators said the driver, traveling eastbound in a Buick Lucerne, swerved into a road construction barricade on the left side of the highway and lost control of the car.

They said as he crossed all lanes of traffic, the front passenger fell out of the car, and the car hit a concrete barrier on the right side of the highway.

Police said neither the driver nor the passenger were wearing seatbelts.

They said when first responders arrived, the driver was already outside of the car. They believe he got out of the car, he or a passerby may have pulled him out.

Louis Alexander said he was on his way to his girlfriend's house when he came across the accident.

“I see a real quick glimpse of a man like hobbling over in the middle of the highway, so I swerved out of his way and as I swerved and looked down, there’s another man in the road," Alexander said.

In an instant, he decided to pull over and try to help.

He said a few others had already stopped, too, including a Spanish-speaking couple who had called 911 and asked him to communicate for them.

Another woman, he said, had run over the victim in the road.

“She ran up and was like, ‘Was that a person in the road? Was that a person in the road?’" he recalled. "She just breaks down in tears, she’s like, ‘I just hit a person, I just hit a person,' and she starts freaking out.”

Alexander said he and another man noticed the driver on the edge of the highway.

“We ran down to check on him, and he’s almost nonverbal. He’s just kind of moaning and groaning, just making noise. He’s all bloodied up, his pants are down to his ankles, like he just—it was almost like he got hit, also," he said.

Alexander said he remembers hearing other cars hit the passenger and felt helpless.

“As I’m running down, you can just see and hear what should have been a body just constantly just—you know what I’m saying," he said.

The construction barrier the driver hit is part of the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) Southeast Connector Project, on track to finish in mid-2028.

Many drivers have voiced safety concerns about construction in the area after the crash, but police said right now, they have no indication that the construction zone played a factor.

Project spokesperson Jay Proskovec said they have precautions in place.

“You’ll notice when you come into the project, in every direction, we’re reducing the speed to 55 miles per hour," he said. “There are traffic devices set up in certain places, there are certain lane switches and things like that, so we want to make sure everyone’s safe when they’re driving through the project, itself.”

When asked if more could be done to improve safety, like improving lighting, Proskovec said he's confident in what they're already doing.

“I think we do a fantastic job of being the safest project in the Metroplex," he said.

But Alexander, who drives through the crash area at least once a day, thinks lighting would help.

“There is zero light on that road. And especially whenever there is no other cars in either direction coming from either side of traffic, it is pitch black dark,” he said.

He said maybe people would have been able to stop before hitting the victim's body.

“I think that’s the worst part," he said.

As he grapples with what he saw, he sends condolences to the loved ones of both the driver and passenger involved in the crash.

"It really shows you how fragile life really is," Alexander said.

He said he's finding some comfort in his role.

“I was actually supposed to be 10 or 15 minutes in front of that accident," said Alexander, who was supposed to leave a little earlier to get to his girlfriend's house.

He said another Good Samaritan was also supposed to be on the road sooner but ended up getting off of work late.

"It’s a little bit more of a peace knowing, yeah, God put us in that position and all we pretty much did was play a role," Alexander said.