LG Man Not Seriously Injured After 18-Wheeler Accident on Hwy. 77

A La Grange man escaped serious injury Tuesday, Oct. 1, in a wreck with an 18-wheeler on US 77.

A report from Trooper Louis Gabler with the Texas Highway Patrol said the wreck happened around 8:32 a.m. at the intersection of US 77 and Schubert Rd. north of La Grange. Lawrence Reinhold Heinrich, 88 of La Grange, was driving a gray 2014 Kia Optima on Schubert Rd. The report said he was stopped at the stop sign but then failed to yield the right of way to an 18-wheeler that was heading south on US 77.

The intersection of Schubert Rd. and US 77 is on a downhill side of a hillcrest. The report said Heinrich told the trooper he looked to the left and to the right before departing, and that he was watching another vehicle in the roadway and before making the turn. He “did not look back to the left before proceeding into the intersection,” the report said.

Mark Sylvester Booher, 50 of Reisel, was driving a Kenworth truck tractor pulling a trailer South on US 77. Upon seeing the Kia pull out of the intersection, the report said, Booher attempted swerving to the left to avoid a collision, but he was unsuccessful. The 18-wheeler went across the northbound lane and entered the bar ditch. It came to rest among some brush.

The report said Heinrich sustained some possible injuries, but he declined EMS treatment.