Abigail Boatwright, Evan Boatwright Death – The fatal collision that occurred in Temple on April 27 and resulted in the deaths of two Gatesville passengers involved a driver who was described as either “distracted or inattentive” in a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Texas Peace Officer’s crash report. Abigail Boatwright, 22, and Evan Boatwright, 17, were the two individuals who lost their lives in the accident, as confirmed by the Temple Police Department and the TxDOT crash report. They were passengers in a Ford F-150 traveling on State Highway 36 when an oversized load fell off a trailer and onto their vehicle.
The tragic incident took place shortly after 11 a.m. at the junction of State Highway 36 and Highway 317 in Temple.
According to the TxDOT crash report, the driver of the F-150, James Jones, was heading east on State Highway 36 at an unknown speed when he approached the rear of a line of vehicles stopped to accommodate a trailer transporting a 16-foot wide and nearly 350,000-pound load. The oversized load was being transported by a Kenworth truck and carried on five connected flatbed trailers with “240 tires on 120 axles.”
Footage from the Kenworth’s dashcam revealed that the truck was traveling west on Highway 36 at a speed of 43 miles per hour. The report indicated that the truck was wider than the lane width, forcing it to straddle both the eastbound and westbound lanes.
A motorcycle unit from the Houston Police Department was escorting the convoy and managing traffic for the oversized load.
The report stated that Jones, due to being “either distracted or inattentive,” failed to notice the escort pilot vehicles warning him about the approaching wide load as they passed his location. Ignoring the warning from the Houston police motorcycle unit, Jones did not stop behind the other vehicles, causing him to veer left and enter the path of the Kenworth carrying the oversized load.
The Kenworth driver applied the brakes to avoid a collision with Jones’ vehicle. Subsequently, Jones moved onto the shoulder and came to a partial stop.
