HARDIN COUNTY – A crash last Wednesday morning claimed the life of a 19-year-old Warren man, and resulted in a widespread power outage.
According to reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the accident occurred nearly four miles west of Silsbee, and resulted in the death of Zachary Morris, who was headed west on FM 1122, near FM 418 at about 3:20 a.m.
According to Capt. Kevin Hussey with the DPS, Morris crashed his pickup truck into a utility pole, after he failed to make a curve in the road, veered into a ditch and then made head-on contact with the utility pole, and then a large tree. The force of the crash knocked down the pole and several transformers. The impact of the crash also caused the vehicle to catch fire for a brief period.
According to Hussey, Morris was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from his vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash caused more than 1,000 Entergy Texas customers to lose power, and the road was closed briefly, but reopened. Crews had restored power by Wednesday afternoon to all but a handful of Entergy customers, according to reports.
