What will it take to wake up Texas to its horrific problem with construction crane collapses? Texans like to think of their state as No. 1, but sometimes it’s No. 1 for the wrong reasons, and that’s too often the case with construction crane fatalities.

In 2005 and 2006, Texas led the nation in construction crane fatalities, with a total of 26 for that period, the Associated Press reports. Now Texas has four construction crane fatalities for 2008, after Friday’s collapse of a 300-foot construction crane at the LyondellBasell refinery at the Houston Ship Channel. Seven others were injured.
Did this accident have to happen? No. Almost by definition, no accident “has” to happen, and all accidents are preventable. In this case, it seems laws and regulations are extremely loose concerning the kind of towering construction cranes which collapsed in Houston and the two which collapsed earlier this year in New York City, killing nine people there. (more…)

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Proper, safe driving is filled with many “don’ts,” and perhaps the most familiar is “Don’t drink and drive.” But here’s another “don’t” worth filing away in your cranium and heeding forevermore: “Don’t drive if you’re about to fall asleep,” because falling asleep at the wheel is no excuse for the nightmare of traffic tragedies.

A Houston Police officer is dead and another is seriously injured reportedly because another man failed to heed that “don’t.”

The man, Hung Truong, says he worked a 12-hour shift starting at 5 p.m. last Saturday, June 28, and ending at 5 a.m. Sunday, June 29.

Soon after that, his vehicle reportedly slammed into barricades at a road construction site at the Katy Freeway and Highway 6. The out of control vehicle hit and killed Officer Gary Gryder, 47, a 25-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, and seriously injured Officer Joe Pyland. Both were working the site off-duty to assist in traffic safety.

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