Ted Houghton, chairman of the state Transportation Commission, has called on Texas officials to address motor vehicle deaths and multiple-fatality crashes involving trucks and other commercial vehicles that have accompanied the state’s oil and natural gas boom since 2008. His remarks came in response to an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and Houston Public Media that documented significant increases in traffic deaths in shale drilling areas and urban hubs across Texas. Between 2009 and 2013, Texas traffic fatalities climbed 8 percent from 3,122 to 3,378, even as traffic fatalities in most other states continued to decline. Traffic deaths linked to commercial vehicle crashes in Texas have risen by 51 percent, from 352 in 2009 to 532 in 2013, the investigation found.
Read Article: Houston Chronicle
