HOUSTON — A Sugar Land police officer injured in a weekend crash on US-59 is showing some signs of improvement. According to SLPD, Officer Ruben Munoz is stable and somewhat responsive, but he'll need more surgery.
All southbound lanes of US-59 near Highway 90 were closed Sunday morning after a series of crashes sent the officer and two other drivers to the hospital, according to the Sugar Land Police Department.
It started around 2 a.m. on the southbound lanes of the Southwest Freeway.
According to Sugar Land police, officers were responding to a one-car accident that was being investigated as a DWI. The driver told police he lost control and hit an interior wall. Police said the driver was then taken for a sobriety test.
Officer Munoz remained at the scene in his parked patrol car to block the HOV lanes while a wrecker removed the disabled vehicle involved in the initial crash.
Munoz's patrol vehicle was then struck by a truck, according to police. Munoz was removed from his vehicle and given emergency care, and while that was happening, a woman driving a Jeep struck the pickup truck.
Both the woman driving the Jeep and Munoz were airlifted to the Texas Medical Center in critical condition. We haven't gotten an update on the condition of the woman.
The driver of the truck was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Sugar Land Police Chief Eric Robins said Munoz is a veteran police officer but has only been with SLPD for a little less than a year.
Check out our interactive traffic map to see this and other trouble spots across the Houston area: