Hoping to curb roadside deaths, TxDOT is helping stranded drivers in West Texas

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ODESSA — Workers at the Texas Department of Transportation have begun responding to calls to remove debris and abandoned vehicles from West Texas roads and extinguish vehicle fires.

They also change flat tires and jumpstart car batteries.

The program, launched in Midland and Ector counties in July, aims to reduce the potential for more car crashes that result in serious injuries or deaths — and so far, they’ve responded to nearly 500 calls and have helped more than 1,400 drivers.

“We have such a high crash rate, a growing population, and growing traffic,” said Debra Richmond, director of road safety initiatives for the Permian Strategic Partnership, a nonprofit backed by oil companies that aims to improve lives in the region. “We feel like this could really make a difference in the short term while we continue advocating for long-term improvement.”

Twelve-wheel trucks that haul machinery, equipment and oil drums congest the Permian Basin’s roads and interstates. Pickup trucks and sedans zip in between. Outdated highways are narrow. Speed limits are high, 80 miles per hour in some spots. Construction never ends. Together, the roads are some of the deadliest in the state.

A 2023 report found that severe and fatal vehicle accidents in the Permian Basin outpaced the rest of the state. In 2024, there were 5.8% fewer road deaths, a trend Richmond attributes to heightened public awareness campaigns and infrastructure improvements.

A welcome relief, the drop in deaths is not yet a trend. So, the Permian Strategic Partnership, Midland County and the Texas Department of Transportation spent $5 million on the two-year program to deter crashes even further.

“We're still facing a lot of the challenges that come with having heavy industry crossed with residential and regular civilian traffic, whether that's heavy equipment and heavy commercial trucks sharing the road with school buses and folks in smaller vehicles, just going about their day-to-day lives,” Richmond said. “All of those challenges are just compounding.”

The program is modeled after similar efforts in major Texas cities, including Austin, El Paso and San Antonio. It costs Texas counties, toll authorities and individual organizations $22.7 million to run the program, which employs 138 workers across the state to help stranded drivers.

The Permian Basin program was first advertised in March, ahead of its launch. To receive assistance, drivers can call a number provided by the state.

Workers, employed by the state’s transportation agency, respond to incidents as minor as flat tires and dead batteries, and collect abandoned vehicles. They can also be asked to put out vehicle fires or assist with cars that have been rolled over. At the site of a car crash, they help law enforcement in removing any debris. They also patrol two busy stretches of road in Midland and Ector counties, where the most frequent number of crashes occur. The goal is to prevent second crashes at the site of the original road hazard.

Indeed, a second crash can follow on wide open stretches of road when a driver is not expecting the vehicle ahead to be stopped, said Jeffrey Michael, a scholar at Johns Hopkins University who researches road safety.

“If you combine that with a little bit of distraction or fatigue, then you can easily see where that would be a very high-risk situation,” he said.

High speed limits and commercial traffic can play a particularly substantial role in severe and fatal accidents, he said. In congested suburban areas, he said, travel speeds are lower, lessening the likelihood of an accident. Wide open roads with commercial traffic combine the risks of speed with the extra size and weight of heavy trucks. But it is not as true for regions with commercial traffic, which he said make up a third of the 1.2 million traffic deaths globally — or about 400,000, citing a 2025 United Nations report.

There are other alternatives to decrease road deaths, Michael said.

He said companies employing commercial drivers can take a more active role in ensuring that they comply with speed limits and road safety precautions. For example, these employers could be expected to use equipment, including speed limiters, which ensure their vehicles comply with speed limits. Other equipment to increase safety includes automatic emergency braking, which detects potential collisions.

“The expectation and tradition is that we expect less outside the gate,” Michael said. “Outside the gate, we don’t look to the corporation for responsibility; we look to the driver.”

For roadside assistance in Midland and Ector counties, call: 877-699-HERO.

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