New information was released Wednesday in a fatal crash on a busy stretch of I-35W.
Police said an 18-wheeler that was headed northbound Tuesday in a heavy construction zone on I-35W near 28th Street hit a cement median, sending it into the southbound lane. A southbound driver then hit that median and somehow flew off the side of the elevated freeway.
"I was on I-35 headed north after dropping my daughter off at TCC," said Lisa Bell, who was on the freeway at the time of the wreck. She said images of the aftermath have been haunting her.
"Best I could tell, I was probably no more than eight cars back,"
She and her husband Mark didn't know until Wednesday that it was their very own neighbor, identified by the medical examiner as 46-year-old Stephen Dean, who was in the mangled SUV that had flown off the freeway. The Bells describe Dean as a kind man who practiced photography and never forgot your name.
"Kind of takes your breath away, and you just—you run out of words," said Mark.
Fort Worth Police are still trying to figure out why and how this chain of events occurred.
"They're probably looking at speed, maybe any malfunctions to anyone’s vehicle that was involved," said Officer Tamara Valle.
She said speed and driver inattention have been issues in this already congested and complicated area.
"There has been an increase in the accidents and severity of accidents have increased since the construction started," said Valle.
For its part, the North Tarrant Express Project said both the cement medians and side barriers are and were TxDOT compliant, though the new bridge they are building in this area will have higher, updated barriers. The organization urges the 144,000-or-so drivers who travel this area every day to stay alert and follow the speed limit.
The Bell family said to do it in their neighbor's honor.
"Again, I don't know what happened yesterday with that truck. But something did. It was catastrophic. And I don’t want to see that again," Lisa Bell says.