Truck spilling cement on roadway causes 'violent crash,' killing 2
Two people were killed in a car crash in Texas Friday morning when a cement truck leaked wet mortar onto the roadway, police said.
The accident happened in Humble, about 20 miles north of Houston.
It appears that a truck with a "cement drum was leaving its plant and immediately began losing wet cement," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet. "Cement spilled on the roadway causing a hazard."
One driver traveling northbound drove over the wet concrete, lost control of the car, jumped the median and hit another vehicle going southbound. Both drivers died at the scene, Gonzalez said. They were later identified by police as LaTonya Earl, 50, and Selvin L. Maldonado Palacios, 19.
Pastor Walter August with the Church at Bethel's Family in Houston said Earl was a member of their church and asked for prayers.
"Pray for the Earl family; that whole entire family. Dr. Earl was well known everywhere. And pray for our spiritual leaders to choir members to the Church at Bethel's Family and all the affiliates that we do have out here," he said in a video statement on Facebook.
NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston reported that the sheriff said it appears that the part of the truck holding the cement was turning the wrong way while the driver was turning a corner.
"Our condolences go out to the families," Gonzalez said.
