El Paso has launched an immediate commercial-vehicle inspection and enforcement initiative on its Transmountain corridor, a day after a semi truck lost its brakes on the steep grade and triggered a multi-vehicle pileup that killed one man and injured several others, CDLLife reported, citing KFOX14's coverage of a city press conference.

Source: CDLLife

The crash happened on Monday, October 19, at the Transmountain overpass where Loop 375 crosses Interstate 10 in northwest El Paso. The El Paso Fire Department said one person was airlifted to hospital, four others were taken with minor injuries and four more declined transport, KFOX14 reported. Police had not publicly released the dead man's identity.

Source: KFOX14

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Renard Johnson and Police Chief Peter Pacillas said brake failure caused the crash. According to KFOX14's reporting carried by CDLLife, the semi came down the grade near Loop 375 and North Desert, ploughed through an intersection and set off a chain of collisions involving eight vehicles in total; the driver of one pickup died at the scene and another pickup driver was seriously injured. The crash remains under investigation.

Johnson announced the “Enough is Enough” initiative effective immediately, targeting commercial vehicles travelling through Transmountain, and called for limiting truck traffic on the road, CDLLife reported.

The corridor has a long record of runaway-truck crashes. Texas opened its first mechanical runaway truck ramp on Loop 375 in July — a net system designed to stop a 90,000-pound truck travelling at 90 mph — but TxDOT says the ramp has not yet been used, and brake-failure crashes on the grade have continued.

For Punjabi and other long-haul truckers crossing West Texas on I-10, the practical takeaway is direct: expect inspections on the Transmountain stretch, and treat the descent's brake checks and runaway ramps as mandatory, not optional.