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Texas closes FM 149 both ways after crash treated as delayed fatal
The Texas Department of Transportation issued an IPAWS Severe local-area emergency Friday saying FM 149 was closed both ways after a major crash at Karen Switch that Montgomery County authorities were treating as a delayed fatal accident.
The Texas Department of Transportation issued an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System local-area emergency on Friday, Oct. 23, saying Farm to Market Road 149 was closed in both directions after a major crash1.
The alert was coded as a civil local-area emergency (LAE) with Severe severity, Immediate urgency and Observed certainty1. The IPAWS record listed a 1:56 p.m. UTC issue time Friday (8:56 a.m. CDT) and a 7:56 p.m. UTC expiration Friday (2:56 p.m. CDT)1. The sender was listed as TXDOT, Austin, Texas1.
The wireless text said there was a major accident on 149 northbound and southbound at Karen Switch and that MCSO was treating it as a delayed fatal accident1. The alert did not spell out MCSO; that abbreviation is commonly used for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Texas, but the message did not name a county1.
No independent news outlet was in the desk packet for this alert1. The number of vehicles, names of people involved, and whether the road had reopened before the listed expiration were not in the TxDOT message1.