Published: March 25, 2008 10:39 am            

Post Toast

Mail truck goes up in flames on IH-35

If you think your check is in the mail, maybe you should check again.

Postal service inspectors recovered what they could after an 18-wheeler postal delivery truck full of mail crashed and burned on IH-35 early Monday.

That accident and two subsequent fender-benders forced the closure of the southbound Interstate for about five hours, including the morning rush time.

According to San Marcos Police, the 18-wheeler was southbound on IH-35 nearing the weigh station when the driver overcorrected while trying to avoid hitting a towed pickup that was "swerving from left to right."

The big rig hit the towed truck and then slammed into the retaining wall which ruptured its gas tank, said SMPD Sgt. Fred Wisener.

The truck driver was unhurt. A passenger in the pickup being towed was treated for a minor injury, Wisener said.

Postal inspectors at the scene said some of the mail was salvageable, and that all would be taken to San Antonio for analysis. The inspectors said the mail was packaged in metal cage-like boxes with bar codes attached to indicate its place of origin.

The crash occurred at approximately 3:29 a.m., Wisener said. Just north of that site, a motor home rear-ended an SUV around 7:20 a.m. and a third minor accident near there was reported around 8 a.m.

"It was people just not paying attention," he said of the minor collisions along the one-lane southbound Interstate.

The remaining lanes were reopened around 9 a.m., Wisener said.

        

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