Fort Worth, Texas: Driver of Disabled Vehicle Struck and Killed on Highway 183 Ramp Near DFW Airport

A driver standing outside a disabled car on a highway ramp near Dallas Fort Worth International Airport was struck by a passing vehicle and killed on Saturday night, in a crash that closed the northbound lanes of International Parkway while Fort Worth police investigated.

Fort Worth police and fire crews responded at 9:13 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, to a major accident on the ramp from westbound Highway 183 to northbound International Parkway, near the south entrance to DFW Airport, DFW Scanner reported. WFAA carried the same police account in its Sunday headlines, reporting one person killed after being hit by a car on a Highway 183 ramp in Fort Worth.

Standing outside a disabled car

Investigators said the driver of a disabled vehicle was standing outside the car when a passing vehicle struck him. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

That is the whole confirmed sequence in the reports published by early Sunday. A car was disabled on the ramp. Its driver was outside it. A passing vehicle hit him, and he died where he fell. The reports did not say why the car was disabled, which lane the driver was standing in, or whether the passing driver stopped. Those answers sit with the Fort Worth police investigators who worked the ramp overnight.

The ramp at the airport's south entrance

The crash happened on the ramp that carries traffic from westbound Highway 183 onto northbound International Parkway, by the south entrance to DFW Airport, one of the busiest airport approaches in North Texas, used around the clock by travelers, airline crews, freight drivers and airport workers. A fatal crash there on a Saturday night lands in the middle of the airport's late flight banks and the weekend traffic on Highway 183, and every driver routed toward the airport from the south had to work around the closure while officers documented the ramp.

Road closed for the investigation

The northbound lanes of International Parkway were closed while Fort Worth police investigated the scene, DFW Scanner reported. The report gave no reopening time, and no later report published by early Sunday said when the lanes reopened. Closures of that kind are standard after a fatal crash: investigators measure the scene and document where the vehicles and the victim came to rest before they release the road.

What has not been released

No additional information had been released in the reports published by early Sunday. The driver who died was not named in those reports. The reports did not describe the passing vehicle, did not say whether its driver stayed at the scene or spoke with officers, and did not say what caused the disabled car to stop on the ramp.

For now, the confirmed picture is narrow. At 9:13 p.m. on Saturday, Fort Worth police and fire crews went to a major accident on that ramp. A driver standing outside a disabled car was struck by a passing vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. The northbound lanes of International Parkway were closed while police investigated, and the rest of the story waits on the investigators.