Blown tire leads to parkway death

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

A leather tool belt with a hammer snug in its ring and orange extension cords were strewn across Summerlin Parkway Thursday afternoon after an accident took the life of a 24-year-old man returning home from work.

Just before 3 p.m. two construction workers were headed home in a Chevrolet pickup when a tire blew out, sending the truck into a roll, a Highway Patrol spokesman said.

"They had got on the parkway heading east at Rampart Boulevard," Trooper Gil Delgado said. "The tire started to shred, and from what the driver and witnesses have said it looks like the driver overcorrected, causing the truck to roll."

The truck came to rest in the median off the north side of Summerlin Parkway, west of the Buffalo Drive exit.

Isidro Becerra, the passenger, was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the truck when it started to roll, Delgado said. Paramedics were called to the scene, but Becerra died before they could arrive.

The driver suffered no injuries but was taken to University Medical Center for precautionary reasons.

As the truck rolled its camper shell flew off scattering wrenches, bolts and tools across the road, witness Lori Lockett said.

"I don't know how many times it rolled, but it made me sick to my stomach," Lockett said. "I was about six cars behind it, but when I saw a man lying in the road I thought I should stop."

The NHP and Metro Police closed down eastbound Summerlin Parkway at Rampart for about two hours while they investigated the accident.