Driver dies after heavy truck crashes into restaurant

RICHMOND, Texas (FOX 26) - What a mess! An entire big rig inside Shogun Japanese Grill and Sushi. Normally at the time of day when it crashed, chef Servendo Calbo would've been inside there, but today, his boss told him to come in later.

"The only thing I can say is I'm a really lucky man," says Calbo.

Salon employee Alysia Autry was at already work in the space next door to the restaurant typing  an email.

"The whole cabinet crashed over onto my back," says Autry. "I had no idea what was going on. I jumped the counter and ran out and saw the truck had gone through the restaurant." 

But how and why? At around 9 a.m. Thursday, the driver was heading down State Highway 99 when he veered across five lanes and the median before slamming the heavy truck into the building, according to Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls. Along the way, the driver clipped two vehicles in the northbound lanes, injuring three people.

"There were some witnesses that saw the driver appeared to be slumped over the wheel," says Sheriff Nehls. "If you look, there was no braking here. If he had fallen asleep, this would have woken him up."

Sadly, the driver never woke up. The driver died was taken to a hospital where he died. While tragic, remarkably, the incident happened just when rush hour was subsiding and just before the restaurant and the shopping center got busy. Had it not, Sheriff Nehls and some witnesses shudder to think about what might have happened. Probably no one is thinking about that more than Calbo.

"Really, I can not say anything, just. I don't know," adds Calbo, shaking his head. "It's scary. I'm pretty lucky!"

One more piece of luck. The truck was carrying liquid nitrogen, which is neither flammable nor explosive.