UPDATE: Man killed in US 281 wreck ID’d
Authorities identified the victim of a fatal two-vehicle collision on Tuesday, May 4, in Marble Falls as Gary Peter Gernon, 67, of Horseshoe Bay. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
Officials identified 67-year-old Gary Peter Gernon of Horseshoe Bay as the person killed in a Tuesday, May 4, two-vehicle collision at the intersection of U.S. 281 and FM 2147 in Marble Falls.
Emergency crews responded to a collision at about noon Tuesday involving a Chevrolet Equinox driven by Gernon and an International tractor-trailer.
According to a Marble Falls police report, the Equinox was in the northbound turn lane on U.S. 281 making a left-hand turn onto FM 2147.
The tractor-trailer was traveling south on U.S. 281. According to the report, the driver of the Equinox “failed to yield right of way,” and the tractor-trailer struck it.
Gernon died at the scene.
17 thoughts on “UPDATE: Man killed in US 281 wreck ID’d”
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If you’ve ever been at the corner of 281 and 2147, you know there is very little area for mistakes. The driver of an 18-wheeler, going the speed limit, doesn’t have enough space for error if someone turns in front of him. Sadly, Mr. Gernon made an error that cost him his life.
The intersection of 281 and 2147 is always busy and the road is really tight. They should not allow big trucks or any 18 wheeler to pass along that road. They should be rerouted.
Vhing,
Where are you going to reroute them to??? Austin or highway 29???
I see a couple of things in this dialogue that make me thing that too many people make up their minds and are not interested in the facts. I looked at the skid marks the truck made. I would wager that he was not far off on speed. I have been down that hill a million times – I think ya’ll should consider that the excess speed may have been in the car – just saying – it is always sad when some thing like this happens As a society we really need to be interested in the facts and stop jumping to conclusions.
There needs to be a road route for big rigs only…
Not to be contentious, but hardly ever does an 18 wheeler drive at a safe speed, going through that light. Yes, the driver was technically and legally at fault. Yet, if the light was NOT red, then most big rigs will gun it just to help get up that hill…
That’s usually what happens when you pull in front of a moving truck, sad but suv driver made a mistake, cost him his life. Truck was not at fault
I’m not really understanding why the speed limit is not enforced more often through this intersection. Cars, trucks, & most importantly 18 wheelers hauling heavy loads come speeding through there. The speed limit is 35. I don’t want to assume, but I find it hard to believe there was not speeding involved in this.
The car turned in front of the truck. If a truck is loaded and going up hill, as this one was, it is very hard for them to speed.
The hill is just starting as you pass through that light. I’ve witnessed countless times many cars, including 18 wheelers, speeding across the bridge through that light. Just because the car turned in front of the truck doesn’t mean speed didn’t factor into it. 35 miles per hour is the speed limit, and as I said I find it very hard to believe the car was split in two from a 35 mph hit.
Yellow flashing lights need to be installed ahead of this intersection light. Large trucks need time to slow down before getting to the intersection! Very dangerous!
There are warning signs about the light coming up and the speed limit is reduced when you are going north as the car was. The truck was going south, up the hill which does slow them down. The car “failed to yield right of way” and turned in front of the truck. Not all wrecks involving trucks are the truck fault.
18 wheelers come roaring down that hill…it’s no wonder this doesn’t happen even more often than it does…and, it’s too often already.
The truck was going South, that means he was going up the hill. Speed doesn’t really matter when the car turned in front of the truck.
Thank you, Tammy. Seems like some people just cannot read what is printed in black and white, right in front of them!
The issue for me is no matter which way the truck is going they start picking up speed going across the bridge or coming into Marble Falls so they do not have to shift and try to crawl up that hill. I almost got hit the same day by the same kind of truck after he sped across the bridge and the light turned red so he had to lock his trailer brakes to stop his truck and the trailer started coming around the side of his vehicle. I have had this happen both coming and going and there is no worse feeling than watching that trailer start coming around with smoke coming from the brakes and KNOWING all you can do is sit there and hope you do not get hit. They need to slow ALL the 18 wheelers down when coming through Marble Falls.
The truck was going up hill in this case so he probably was not roaring, but you never know with those guys. One of those drivers killed my dad years ago. He was speeding, but my dad pulled out in front of him, so it was really a combination of errors. Probably the same here?