Published June 5, 2010

TEXAS CITY — An 18-year-old Santa Fe man walked away with only minor injuries after his truck slammed into a forklift that had fallen onto the road from a tractor-trailer Thursday night.

Police said they had to track down the driver of the big rig because he apparently was unaware the forklift had come off on the Emmett Lowry Expressway.

Matt Slagle said he was headed to his girlfriend’s house in Texas City about 9:45 p.m. He had just switched from the left to right lane of the expressway near state Highway 3, when a driver in front of him slammed on the brakes.

“I slammed on my breaks, and we almost hit, but she swerved to the left and the forklift was right there in the middle of the road,” Slagle said. “I just smacked it right there.”

The driver of the tractor trailer, Ira Hackett, 70, of Irving, was cited for failure to secure his load, driving a vehicle with an expired motor vehicle inspection certificate and failure to maintain financial responsibility, Texas City Police Chief Robert Burby said.

Slagle credited his truck’s air bags and wearing a seat belt for not being injured not more seriously.

His minor injuries included a big red mark across his chest from the seat belt and minor burns on his arms from the air bag.

“I was thinking, ‘Wow, I should have been hurt way worse than I am,’” he said.

“I was flying, and after two hours in the hospital, they let me go with just scrapes and burns.”

Renee Ayres, a respiratory therapist at Mainland Medical Center and her husband, Chris, came upon the accident shortly after it happened and attended to Slagle. The couple was surprised no one was killed in the collision.

“We are lucky there weren’t three dead people there,” Renee Ayres said. “It’s dark at that spot, and it was hard to see that forklift.”

She was not alone in her assessment.

“I was surprised to get out of the vehicle and walk around,” Slagle said.

The accident will be a hardship for his family.

“It’s going to be real tough,” Slagle’s mother, Teresa Higgins, said. “I am a single mom with two children that drive. He can’t work if he doesn’t have a vehicle, and the truck is totaled.”