Two children killed in multiple-vehicle crashes on Interstate 20 in Abilene

An Abilene Police Department officer photographs a crash scene at which six vehicles still were in place in the westbound lane of Interstate 20 on Friday morning. Fatalities and injuries were confirmed by APD.

Two children were killed in a Friday morning multiple-vehicle crash on westbound Interstate 20 between the East Business 80 and Loop 322 exits.

At a regularly scheduled news conference Friday, Abilene Police Chief Stan Standridge said the victims were sisters ages 11 and 14 from the Big Country area. 

Westbound lanes on that section of the interstate were closed for several hours. 

The crashes involved at least a half-dozen vehicles, including two tractor-trailer rigs about 8:30 a.m. when traffic was slowing down because of a truck that had rolled over farther west on the interstate.

A truck overturned on westbound Interstate 20 on Friday morning, causing traffic to halt and leading to a pileup at which fatalities were reported.

The first crash involved an one-ton "bucket" Oncor utility truck whose rear axle sheared off near the Loop 322 exit, according to Standridge. 

"The utility truck ultimately loses control and rolls completely off the interstate onto the embankment on westbound lane of Interstate 20," Standridge said.

The driver and passenger were transported to the hospital.

As Abilene police officer Jimmy Woods was driving east of the first accident to slow down interstate traffic, he saw a stopped black vehicle hit from behind by a full-sized quad cab Dodge pickup that "never does slow down," Standridge said.

An Abilene Police Department officer photographs the cab of semi-truck involved in a fatal crash Friday morning on westbound Interstate 20 between the East Business 80 split and Loop 322.

The two children in the black vehicle were killed, and the mother driving the vehicle was transported to the hospital for treatment, he said. 

"She is expected to live," Standridge said.

Names of the people involved in the accident had not been released by Abilene police Friday evening.

Traffic was diverted from the westbound lanes to the Business Interstate 20 to Loop 322 back to the interstate. Traffic on Loop 322 leading back to the interstate was backed up almost to the intersection with Business Interstate 20, and some diverted traffic was electing to go through town. 

Westbound traffic on Interstate 20 was rerouted at the Business 80 exit to Loop 322 to avoid two crash scenes farther west on the highway.

The Abilene Police Department's chaplain Beth Reeves was at the hospital working with the families affected by the wreck, Standridge said.  

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Standridge asked the community to pray for the families involved and to be mindful of the police, firefighters, ambulance services personnel and tow truck drivers who handled the accident.

“You never get accustomed to it, but what you do is you just go into work mode. There’s a ton of work. You process everything through a work model. Is it healthy? Probably not. But that’s what we do,” Standridge said.

Staff writer Brian Bethel contributed to this story.

Abilene police and firefighters study debris from a Friday morning crash on Interstate 20 in Abilene that, police report, killed at least two people.