More than 44,000 pounds of cornmeal had to be unloaded from an 18-wheeler before it could be removed from the roadway Friday following a one-vehicle accident that killed a 27-year-old Houston man.
Cederic Justice was traveling north in an 18-wheeler with a 42,000-pound load of cornmeal bound for North Carolina.
“We think he fell asleep,” said Department of Public Safety Corp. C.J. Villarreal.
Justice ran off the road and appeared to have over-corrected, according to Trooper Andrew Smith, who investigated the accident.
The 18-wheeler traveled 300 feet down the bar ditch before the truck flipped on its side onto the divider fence. Justice was thrown out the driver’s side window, and the cab fell on him, according to the trooper.
“We possibly would have had a different outcome if he had been wearing a seat belt,” Smith said.
The weather was a little foggy, and speed was not a factor, according to Smith.
The north and southbound lanes were reduced to one lane of traffic until 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Allan’s Wrecker Service, of Victoria, sent five drivers to the scene to unload the cornmeal by hand so the rig could be up-righted and hauled away.
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