Investigating Deadly Crashes

once again moving on i-10 in west el paso. the eastbound lanes were closed overnight for nine hours after a man was hit by several vehicles. it happened just after 10 o’clock last night near porfirio diaz. the abc-seven tex- dot traffic cameras show all lanes are open. an abc-seven employee says it took more than an hour to get from executive center to schuster avenue, where traffic was forced off the freeway. tonight, abc-seven looks at the extent of the investigation and why the eastbound lanes didn’t reopen until after seven o’clock this morning. for that we go to abc-seven reporter darren hunt in west el paso, just feet away from where the man was killed. … darren is live with what he’s learned today. rick and estela, the bottom line is, if someone dies on the freeway … police say it’s always going to take quite a while to properly investigate before these lanes are reopened. “it’s gonna be an inconvenience we know that, we realize that.” el paso police spokesman enrique carrillo explained why police take so long to reopen the freeway after a fatal accident. “it’s a crime scene and potentially it could be a homicide investigation, regardless we are still investigating the death of an individual and its gonna take time, it’s time- consuming, it’s a painstaking process its very methodical and in this case the scene is a very large scene.” and a ver unpleasant scene. an abc-7 viewer posted this on our facebook page after witnessing the aftermath on the way home from thursday’s chihuahuas game: “we saw everything. my family i traumatized. it was as if we were in a bad nightmare.” “police assured me that the work with great urgency at fatal accident scenes like this, but getting the freeway back open is not their number one priority.” “however urgent it is, the main priority is to conduct a thorough and accurate investigation.” police sa their first step is to provide medical attention. they then block entrance ramps and special traffic investigators are called to the scene to make a computer- aided diagram, which involves taking video, pictures and measurements of every vehicle, lane and skid mark. once the investigation is completed and everything rechecked, they reopen the freeway. “we are not going to rush the process, to rush it is asking for errors.” i asked if police purposely wait for sunrise to reopen the freeway so they can view the the freeway so they can view the scene better after a nighttime fatality. carrillo told me that’s not their policy and some investigations are completed in darkness, although it is easier to survey the complete scene during daylight. darren hunt, live in west el paso tonight. thank you.