January 2, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported on New Years Day that it was a quiet evening on New Years Eve throughout the state, reporting on their official Facebook page that there were no fatality accidents worked over the holiday night.
However, unfortunately in Texas the story wasn’t the same. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, a man from the state of New York was killed after a wreck involving two semi’s on Interstate 40 in Wheeler, County during the day on Tuesday.
The report stated that the mishap happened just after noon 4 miles east of Shamrock, when the 2020 Freightliner truck tractor towing a semi-trailer driven by 41-year-old Peter Smith of Clifton Springs, New York was traveling westbound on I-40, when for an unknown reason veered across the grassy center median and into the eastbound lanes striking a 2014 Kenworth truck trailer also towing a semi-trailer. The report stated that the eastbound truck, driven by 48-year-old Alan Andrascik of Indiana, Pennsylvania, rolled over on its passenger side and came to rest in a ditch. Andrascik escaped with minor injuries. The Smith vehicle came to rest on its passenger side laying across both eastbound lanes of I-40.
Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger, 25-year-old Darrien Quagliata, was in the sleeper berth of the truck. She was flown and admitted into a Lubbock, Texas hospital, and last listed in serious condition.
According to the Texas DPS, the cause of the collision is still under investigation.
