Lampasas firemen Ronnie Withers, left, Sean Schroeder and Chris Ford converge on the truck-tractor and semi-trailer that landed upside-down far below on the banks of School Creek. A diesel tank was crushed and burst open, but damage was contained by firefighters from Lampasas and Adamsville. PHOTOS BY JIM LOWE The driver of a truck-tractor pulling a semi-trailer with a full load of gravel was airlifted to Temple’s Scott & White Memorial Hospital Wednesday afternoon after the vehicle struck the School Creek Bridge 10 miles north of town and came to rest upside-down some 40 to 50 feet below.

Law-enforcement officials received a call about the accident shortly before 1:30 p.m.

Trooper I Bryan Washko with the Texas Highway Patrol in Hamilton gave the following account.

Steve Wendall Walker, 48, of Waco, was driving a northbound 2005 Peterbilt truck-tractor for Lindsey contractors of Waco when the vehicle struck the bridge on U.S. Highway 281, went airborne for several feet and almost cleared the creek below.

Firemen made their way through brush, left center of photograph, and worked quickly to string a rope across the creek so booms could be connected to the rope to halt the flow of diesel downstream. Walker told authorities that he hit a slick spot on the roadway before the crash, but officials were unable to find one. Walker possibly was fatigued, fell asleep or became distracted, Washko said. There were no skid marks or other evidence on the roadway to suggest the driver lost control of his vehicle, the trooper said.

Walker was the only one in the truck-tractor at the time of the accident, and no other cars were in the crash area at the time. Had additional vehicles been at the location at the time, other drivers could have been imperiled by the guardrail that was whipped about by the collision, Washko said.

A Texas Department of Transportation grader scrapes a long section of guardrail off the School Creek Bridge, so a traffic bottleneck can be remedied. More than 100 feet of guardrail were damaged by the impact of the crash at the bridge between Lampasas and Adamsville. “Well over” 100 feet of guardrail south of the bridge and atop the structure were damaged by the impact, the trooper said. Walker’s life probably was saved when the ve- hicle landed in some tree limbs on the north side of the creek, Washko added. Otherwise, the driver could have been crushed under the weight of the truck, the trooper said. All but the last 10 to 12 feet of the trailer cleared the waterway after the crash.

The truck’s engine was ripped from the frame, and the right diesel tank was crushed and burst open. A slow diesel leak left visible amounts of the fuel on the water below, and the smell of diesel was strong at the bridge above where the rig lay.

The School Creek sign, center foreground, ended up on the bottom of the waterway after the truck-tractor struck guardrails leading up to and atop the bridge. A company official said Walker suffered a broken leg and was expected to be released from the hospital the following day. At the accident scene, the driver was conscious and coherent, according to Washko. An emergency helicopter from Scott & White whisked Walker away to the Temple hospital.

Traffic was snarled at the scene for a time. Northbound and southbound vehicles were at a standstill, while a Texas Department of Transportation grader removed twisted guardrail that had blocked several lanes on the bridge. It was one and one-half to two hours before the bridge was completely reopened to traffic.

Four hours after the crash, a Peterbilt tow truck out of Killeen pulled the remnants of the truck up the steep creek bank, Washko said. At the conclusion of the towing effort, an environmental cleanup crew was expected to work into the night to remove soil contaminated by the diesel, the patrolman said.

Earlier, a Hazardous Material Response Team from the Lampasas Fire Department, with help from the Adamsville Volunteer Fire Department, strung a rope across the creek so “booms” could be attached to it. The booms would absorb diesel and keep it from flowing downstream. As the rope was being secured, a female Adamsville firefighter jumped into the frigid creek to assist in the operation.

While the 18-wheeler was totaled, damage to the bridge was “extensive,” the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper said. Workers will have to redo elevated concrete portions of the structure upon which the guardrail was attached. Crews from TxDOT set up temporary guardrails with reflective barrels. Though the bridge was damaged, Washko said, “The structural integrity of the bridge is intact.”

Lampasas Fire Chief Terry Lindsey said four units from his department and one from the Adamsville Volunteer Fire Department responded to the accident call.

From his vantage point on the bridge looking down below, Lindsey said, “We’re losing a lot of diesel into the creek.” In the meantime, firemen were working to contain the spill and minimize the damage. Of the booms, which would soon be attached to the rope, the fire chief said, “They do not absorb water. They just absorb gas and diesel.”

Guardrail approaches to the bridge had been attached to large wooden posts, just to the south of the bridge. But when the trucktractor struck the rails, the posts were chewed into pieces.

Capital Ambulance was on the scene, as was the Lampasas County Sheriff’s Department -- which assisted with traffic control.

As Washko walked across the bridge, he said of the driver: “He’s lucky he’s alive. He had his seat belt on.”