Oil activity takes Highway 158 toll

Karen Threlkeld, public information officer for the Texas Department of Transportation in San Angelo, said that in December the department will bid out a project that will add alternate passing lanes every two miles on Highway 158 between Garden City and Midland County.

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August 14, 2012

Monique Ching/Standard-Times Oversized loads frequent State Highway 158 from Sterling City to Midland. Texas Department of Transportation plans to bid out a project to add alternate passing lanes on the highway.Traffic has picked up so dramatically with the increase in oil field activity in Glasscock County that many travelers who have a choice are taking different routes to avoid the potential danger.

Glasscock County Sheriff Keith Burnett says the number of wrecks in the county has quadrupled in recent years. "Anywhere there's a stop sign, there's a wreck," he said. "Ninety percent of fatalities are at stop signs" where drivers fail to stop, he said.

"Head-ons (collisions) have really picked up," Burnett said. He said last year there were about seven motor vehicle fatalities in the county. There were five last month, he said.

San Angeloans typically travel on Highway 158 from Sterling City through Garden City to reach Midland. The San Angelo Independent School District has decided that on school-related trips to Midland and Odessa, buses will go to Big Spring on U.S. 87 and then west on Interstate 20…