HOUSTON – A man has been charged with intoxication manslaughter after a deadly crash on the Gulf Freeway near Hobby Airport.
It happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday near Airport Boulevard.
Ricky Goodwin, 27, is accused of driving drunk and killing his passenger after the Dodge Challenger he was driving slammed into a Houston fire truck that was responding to an accident on the freeway.
Police said a witness -- an off-duty police officer -- told investigators Goodwin may have been racing another vehicle prior to the crash.
"He was traveling southbound on the Gulf Freeway and observed a pickup truck and the Dodge Challenger and another vehicle passed him at a high rate of speed," said Sgt. Ignacio Izaguirre, with the Houston Police Department.
Goodwin's female passenger died at the scene. Goodwin was injured but is expected to survive.
Two firefighters who were inside the fire truck were taken to the hospital after complaining of back, neck and shoulder pain.
HFD spokesperson Ruy Lozano said the truck that was hit was parked behind the accident scene. Lozano said policy requires two fire vehicles respond to incidents on the freeway, one for the incident itself and the other to block traffic and protect the emergency responders and other parties on scene.
"Had that fire truck not been there, you would have had firefighters outside of their vehicle performing patient care, making them vulnerable to a high-speed collision and it could have ended catastrophically on their end also," said Lozano.
The name of the 28-year-old woman who died was not immediately released.