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Drunk Driver Killed in Fiery Crash on I-30: Police

A drunk driver was killed in a fiery crash on Interstate 30 early Sunday morning, according to Fort Worth Police.

The wreck happened on eastbound I-30 near Montgomery Rd. just after 2 a.m.

A police cruiser was stopped on the shoulder working an un-related call regarding a stolen vehicle when a truck slammed into the back of the cruiser and burst into flames.

The officers, who were outside of the squad car, were not hurt.

The driver of the truck, who police believe had been drinking, was killed on impact.

Holli Hernandez lives nearby and captured the fiery wreck on camera. She and others tried to figure out how to help, she said, but couldn’t climb the barrier wall separating the access road from the interstate.

“I came outside and my backyard was lit up like it was on fire,” Hernandez said. “I was just terrified, I wanted to make sure whoever was inside was OK.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks when Hernandez learned the driver did not survive – and that police said he had been drinking.

“His family, his poor family, on Father’s Day no less,” she said. “I hope he didn’t have any kids that are suffering today because of this, it is so terrible.”

A tragedy that hits close to home for Hernandez – the father of her daughter, Darrell Stein, died in a drunk driving crash in Garland five years ago.

The 25-year-old slammed into a concrete wall on East Centerville Rd in July of 2012 and was killed.

“This is why, horrible, horrible, horrible things can happen,” she said.

According to TxDOT, there were more than 621 drunk driving crashes in Fort Worth in 2016. Nineteen of those were deadly.

Statewide last year, 987 people were killed in DUI wrecks.

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