Crashes

Man Dies in Rollover Crash in Grape Creek

By Joe Hyde, Jun 19, 2014
 

Armando Gonzalez Aguilar, 40, of San Angelo was pronounced dead at Shannon Medical Center last night just after 10 p.m. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, he was the driver of a red 2001 Ford Pickup that careened out of control while headed south on March Road near Grape Creek.

The DPS report said that he drove off the right side of the roadway into the west ditch. That caused him to overcorrect  back to the left losing control. The truck spun clockwise and into a broadside skid. Then the Ford drove into a cotton field where it rolled over approximately 3 times, ejecting the unrestrained driver. After the Ford landed upright, it continued to accelerate away from the scene a short distance before striking a tree.

There were no other occupants in Vehicle at the time of the crash.

The driver was transported to Shannon Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.

Trooper Jason Lujan-Luna, Highway Patrol, San Angelo, was the investigator.

As it Happened Last Night

Airmed 1, the helicopter ambulance, was dispatched to March Road in Grape Creek for a rollover crash just before 9:45 p.m. A San Angelo EMS was also seen at the scene. The ambulance left with the sirens and lights.

The scene is extremely dark, but a witness at the scene said at least one pickup truck with a camper is involved.

The media are being held back about 100 yards away and first responders can be seen searching the the field adjacent to March Road.

All that we can confirm is that one ambulance left with sirens at about 10:10 p.m.

Update 10:50 p.m.

Jared Thomason, Assistant EMS Coordinator of the Grape Creek VFD, said that DPS is the lead investigating agency. But from what he can tell, the red Ford pickup was traveling south on March Road and lost control after departing the prepared surface. The truck rolled over a few times in the field on the west side of the road. Somehow, the truck righted itself and drove back onto the road, northeast bound, crossed the road, and crashed into a fence on the east side of the road. The driver was thrown out of the truck during the rollovers. There was no driver in the truck when it righted itself and barrelled back towards March.

Update 11:00 p.m.

DPS should complete their investigation sometime tonight. We will report the results Friday morning. Tom Green County Sheriff's Depatment, Grape Creek VFD, San Angelo EMS and Airmed1 tended the crash site. As of right now, approximately five DPS Trooper cars, marked and unmarked are left, along with the Sheriff's Deputies.

Update 11:05 p.m.

Thomason said that he did not believe that there was more than one injured at the scene. There were no other vehicles reported to have been in this crash. After an extensive search of the field in case there was a passenger, and finding nothing, the fire department has left.

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Comments

It's actually the equivalent of a fender bender, the scene just looks more like a big deal than what it really is because it's happened out near Grape Creek. Out around Grape Creek, nobody is officially anything. Everything is volunteer... Volunteer fire, volunteer EMS, volunteer this and that. When some little something happens, it triggers a response by all these volunteers, all of whom have their cars, pickups, mini-vans, motorcycles and you name it decked out with all sorts of blinking, flashing and sparkling lights and sirens. The first little whatever that happens out there, you'll likely see 70 to 100 of these volunteer everything's swarming the area causing the uninformed to believe that a National tragedy has occurred....
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I was wondering why the cab of the pickup didn't look more caved in. It seemed to me that a rollover ("a few times") would induce a little more damage than just running off the road. Of course, I can't see the rest of the vehicle. Maybe it rolled on its nose the whole time. Or, maybe the the guy who fell out rolled over a few times. Or maybe someone was "rolling one" in telling the story... All these questions and more....
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Well, apparently is wasn't just a fender bender. Someones father, brother, son ,friend died. As far as the people that respond to these accidents, for one they had a job they "volunteer" for and the lights and whistles are so they can get to a scene as quickly as possible to do what ever they can to help or save someone. Until you walk in their shoes maybe you should refrain from stupid uneducated statements. Just because you think all of Grape Creek is white trash, hillbilly folk doesn't make any accident just a fender bender so they can cruise around flashing their lights for fun. They are a blessing and I hope to never have a need for them but if I do I welcome everyone of them to show up, horns blaring, lights flashing because I know at least they care and are doing it because they care, not because its their job.
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How do you find it funny when someone died? Although it doesn't affect you there are people out there it does affect. Oh, I forgot, you hide behind initials when you make your comments. I guess you are right, that does show a large degree of "common sense".
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jdgt, Fri, 06/20/2014 - 12:27
Lisa - I didn't find the death humorous, at all... I was simply snickering at Dr. Dingbat's description of typical small-town America. Which, no matter how demented it might seem, is perfectly within my right to do so.
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It is really sad that someone would make fun of the Grape Creek Volunteer Fire Department. They are our first responders and are available 24/7 every day. Just because they are not paid does not mean they are less of an organization. All volunteer fire departments are essential to the health and well being of a community. They save lives and property. There will always be rubberneckers and critics but that does not stop our guys from putting their lives before others. Thank you guys!! Keep up the good work. We appreciate all of you!!!
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Tom Green County Sheriff's officers, OFFICIAL anywhere in the county. DPS troopers, OFFICIAL anywhere in the state! Volunteer EMS & fire department, unselfish individuals giving of their time & expertise, anytime day or night. Who do you want to show up if you have a FATAL 'fender bender'? Don't you think saying 70 to 100 showing up was a bit of an exaggeration? We don't even have that many troopers, deputies or Grape Creek volunteers. Sympathy to the family of the deceased would have been the humane thing to post instead of criticizing the ones who showed up to help. Where were you?
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Dr. Ding-bat, I thank you for your opinion.. But might I correct you.. This was obviously not the equivalent of a fender bender for a human being lost their life and until you walk in MY shoes and understand the stress of fighting for someone else's life, a stranger's life at that, I would say you aren't fit to determine the severity of a wreck. Everybody who runs EMS on this department is very much "official" for we are certified with the Texas Department of State Health Services and we are also Nationally Registered health care providers. That's about as "official" as it gets sir. Might I add, our EMS program has TWO Licensed Paramedics (the highest ranking paramedic in the state of Texas), TWO EMT-Paramedics, FIVE EMTs, and one ECA, which is the most volunteer EMS providers for one department in the county.. That's not counting our 6 EMS students currently enrolled in EMS courses. When an incident does happen, of course it triggers a response, but not from as many people are you suggest it does. We are lucky if we have 5 men on an incident such as this. We ARE the fire department in Grape Creek.. If we don't show up to these 911 calls for service no body shows up. Which means there are many times we leave our families FOR FREE to protect the lives and property of our fellow neighbors. We try our hardest to say goodbye when we leave because we don't know if we will make it home to say good morning. As far as lights go, our members go through extensive training before they are ever allowed to run lights and sirens on our personally owned vehicles. So, before you criticize the "volunteers" I want you to understand there is not much difference in what the city fire department does than what we do as volunteers.. Other than not receiving any pay and using our own fuel, paying for our own training, sweating our own sweat, bleeding our own blood, and even crying our own tears because what we do is a VERY stressful thing.. But I can tell you right now, we wouldn't trade what we do for any payment in the world. Respectfully, Jered Thomason GCVFD Assistant EMS coordinator
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