Two Semis and a Pickup Tangle with Scion, Killing 1 Trucker in I-20 Crash

EASTLAND, TX — When headed to or from Dallas, most travelers from San Angelo will experience Interstate 20 near Eastland. The fastest route to Dallas is by taking U.S. 67 to Coleman where SH 206 routes you through Coleman, Cross Plains, and Cisco to I-20 just west of Eastland.

On September 11, 2019, there was a crash ½ mile east of Eastland on Interstate 20 where three drivers and one passenger were seriously injured and one trucker lost his life.

According to the Texas DPS, all vehicles involved were headed westbound on I-20 where the speed limit is 75 mph. Just before 9 p.m., Alex Roddy, 60, of El Paso, driving a 2016 Freightliner tractor towing a semi-trailer hit a 2007 Scion driven by Wesley Cade Rasbury, 19, of Chatham, Louisiana.

Rasbury’s Scion careened out of control into the north barrow ditch, as Roddy’s Freightliner followed. The Freightliner rolled over and ended up back on the westbound side of I-20’s roadway, coming to a stop blocking both lanes of the interstate.

Orona Cruz, Jr. hit the Freightliner while traveling west in his 2018 Chevy pickup with a female passenger. Cruz’s pickup was then hit by a 2010 Kenworth 18-wheeler driven by Juan Rene Sanchez-Sorola, 27, of Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

The Mexican national driving the Kenworth was killed in the crash and pronounced dead at the scene. All others, including the female passenger in Cruz’s pickup’s passenger seat, Kristi Cruz, 43, of Fort Worth, suffered incapacitating injuries, and were rushed to the Eastland Memorial Hospital.

DPS reported that at the time of the crash, at 8:58 p.m. Wednesday, the skies were cloudy and the roadway dry.