It was after 1 a.m. and the car speeding south in the northbound lanes of Highway 360 near Dallas-Fort Worth was running out of roadway.
But as the car approached the intersection where the highway ends in Mansfield, the driver kept going straight – crashing into a natural gas pipeline station that had little protection from vehicles despite its proximity to the highway.
Its only barrier: A wood fence.
The collision in March 2022 sparked an explosion and pillar of fire that streamed into the night sky, killing the driver and forcing the evacuation of about 300 homes.
In the wake of the Sept. 16 SUV crash that caused a massive pipeline explosion in Deer Park, a Houston Landing review of federal pipeline safety records has found there have been at least 36 incidents nationwide – 12 in Texas – since 2019 of vehicles crashing into above-ground transmission pipelines carrying potentially flammable gas and hazardous liquids.
The crashes had a common theme: pipelines with little protection against drivers that slammed into them.