Another day, another catastrophic reminder that West Texas drivers treat basic traffic laws like software terms of service agreements—completely unread and ignored as quickly as possible. This time, the grand stage for vehicular incompetence was the intersection of State Highway 214 and FM 213 in Yoakum County, where the regional pastime of truck-on-truck violence once again turned deadly.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 22-year-old Sladen Humphries was cruising west in his GMC Sierra late Sunday night. Rather than performing the complex, monumental task of stopping and looking both ways at an intersection, Humphries decided to pull his truck directly into the path of a southbound Ford F-150.
The laws of physics, completely unimpressed by truck branding, took over from there. The collision tragically killed Odessa residents Kayla Galindo, 30, and Isaac Carrillo, 28, right at the scene. A four-year-old boy who was also riding in the F-150 was left with serious injuries and had to be rushed to Lubbock’s University Medical Center.
As for our resident driving genius? Humphries also earned himself a trip to UMC with serious injuries. And in a stunning twist that absolutely anyone who has ever spent five minutes on a West Texas highway could have predicted, the DPS report notes that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Because why bother with a basic, life-saving strap when you have the invincible aura of a pickup truck and a total disregard for oncoming traffic?
But hey, why practice basic situational awareness or buckle up when you can just keep Lubbock’s trauma ward fully funded and operating at maximum capacity?
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