A wrong-way pickup truck travelling east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 in Terrell, Texas, smashed through two other pickups on Wednesday afternoon, November 11, killing a Tyler man and the wrong-way driver himself, the Terrell Police Department said in a report carried by KLTV on Thursday. Nicholas Landwermeyer, of Tyler, died at the scene near mile marker 502, at about 2 p.m. The driver of the wrong-way truck also died at the scene after his vehicle burst into flames with him trapped inside.
Source: KLTV (Tyler), reporting the Terrell Police Department, Nov 12, 2026
The first warning came from the road itself. Terrell police dispatch received multiple 911 calls reporting a driver travelling eastbound in the westbound lanes of I-20, KLTV reported. While officers were on their way, more calls came in — this time reporting a head-on collision. A separate local television report on the crash described police responding to calls about a vehicle on fire and said one person had died, as the first fragmentary accounts came in on Wednesday.
Source: Local television video report, 'Deadly crash shuts down part of I-20 in Terrell,' Nov 11-12, 2026
How the crash unfolded
According to the preliminary investigation reported by KLTV, a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado was travelling the wrong way in the inside westbound lane of I-20 when it first struck a 2023 Ford F-250 driven by Alfonso Zuniga, of Terrell. The Silverado then collided head-on with a 2025 GMC Sierra driven by Landwermeyer. After the second impact the Silverado became fully engulfed in flames with its driver trapped inside. The wrong-way driver died at the scene; police reporting carried by KLTV did not release his name. Zuniga suffered minor injuries.
Source: KLTV (Tyler), reporting the Terrell Police Department, Nov 12, 2026
The victims
Landwermeyer, the Sierra driver, was from Tyler, about 60 miles east of Terrell along the same interstate corridor. He died where the two trucks met, in the inside westbound lane. The Silverado driver's identity had not been released in the police reporting available on Thursday, and no age was given for either man in that reporting. No passengers were reported in any of the three trucks. Because this was a fatal crash, this report does not speculate about why the Silverado was travelling the wrong way: police have not announced a cause, and impairment, confusion and medical emergency are all possibilities investigators routinely examine in wrong-way cases — none has been stated here.
Source: KLTV (Tyler), reporting the Terrell Police Department, Nov 12, 2026
Investigation and witness appeal
Crash investigators with the Terrell Police Department responded to the scene and are conducting what the department called a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash, KLTV reported. Police asked anyone who witnessed the crash, or who has video footage or information that may assist investigators, to contact Officer B. Garza or Officer H. Martinez with the Terrell Police Department. Dashcam video matters in wrong-way cases in particular, because it can establish where a driver entered the highway and how long he was travelling against traffic before impact.
Source: KLTV (Tyler), reporting the Terrell Police Department, Nov 12, 2026
A corridor that has seen this before
Interstate 20 east of Dallas is one of Texas's great east-west freight corridors, carrying heavy truck traffic between Dallas-Fort Worth, East Texas and Louisiana — a route driven daily by long-haul truckers, including many Punjabi drivers working Texas lanes. The stretch through Terrell, in Kaufman County, has a recent history of catastrophic crashes. On June 28, 2025 — a different crash, on the same corridor — a semi-truck whose driver failed to slow for queued traffic near Exit 509 and Hiram Road set off a multi-vehicle pileup that killed five people, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's crash summary, HWY25FH010. Wednesday's wrong-way crash, near mile marker 502, was a separate event with a separate cause still to be determined, but it happened on a road where local drivers already know how quickly a normal afternoon can turn fatal.
Source: National Transportation Safety Board, crash report HWY25FH010 (June 28, 2025 Terrell crash)
Wrong-way crashes are a small share of highway collisions but a disproportionately deadly one, for a simple physical reason: two vehicles travelling toward each other at highway speed close the distance between them at twice the speed of either, leaving almost no time to react. That is why the multiple 911 calls on Wednesday mattered — drivers who saw the Silverado coming did the only thing that can help, warning police and, by their calls, other motorists — and why investigators will want to know exactly where and when the truck entered the westbound lanes.
Source: KLTV (Tyler), reporting the Terrell Police Department, Nov 12, 2026
Known: a 2022 Silverado travelling east in I-20's westbound lanes near mile marker 502 in Terrell at about 2 p.m. Wednesday hit an F-250 (driver Alfonso Zuniga, minor injuries), then hit a GMC Sierra head-on, killing its driver, Nicholas Landwermeyer of Tyler; the Silverado then burned and its driver also died at the scene. Not yet known: the wrong-way driver's name, and why he was travelling against traffic — police have announced no cause.
What happens next
The Terrell Police Department's investigation continues, and its next steps are the release of the wrong-way driver's identity and a fuller account of how the Silverado came to be in the westbound lanes. No charges arise from a crash in which the driver at fault is himself deceased, but the official findings will matter to the families, to insurers, and to any safety review of signage and ramps at the interchanges near mile marker 502. This report will be updated when police release the second driver's name or their findings on the cause.