ACADIANA, La. (KLFY) -- Monday morning was the funeral of Shannon Lee Thibodeaux, 34 who was one of two people killed in a three-vehicle crash on I-49. His death brings a reminder of the importance of reporting erratic drivers as soon as possible. 

Gerald Hobson, an 18-wheeler truck driver on the road that morning, explains seeing the accident.

“I just remember the white F-150 that was involved in the accident. A few miles before that he was running, no telling what speed he was traveling at. I was doing 75 and he flew past me like I was sitting still, and a little way up the road, probably a mile or so, I saw a big fireball kind of just erupt in the darkness,” Hobson explained. 

Hobson said at first he thought it was just a vehicle on fire. He said he saw flashing lights on the side and thought the fire department was there but it was only amber lights, which mostly only tow trucks have. 

“As I got close, I was kind of looking at the scene to see what happened. I realized that, oh, crap, this is the guy that just passed me,” Hobson said. 

Hobson is a former first responder, a fireman for 20 years, and now a part-time police officer jumped out of his truck to help those on the scene. 

“There was a little fire that had happened from the explosion. I would assume that was the gas tank. I put the fire out with my fire extinguisher and I started to kind of assess the scene and see where everyone was at,” Hobson said. “I think in this particular situation it was more than just to see some lights move over.” 

He explained how another man who stopped ahead of him was on the phone and he was hollering about calling and reporting about the erratic driver. Thomas Gossen with the State Police explained they had a trooper who was enroute to the call. 

“What's interesting is in this area, we put out all calls. If you call in a reckless operator on the roadway, we're going to put that out over the radio for any trooper who's in the area to be on the lookout and to head that way. In this specific instance, they did do that and the trooper was enroute. Unfortunately, that reckless driver breached the disabled vehicle before we could reach the reckless operator,” Gossen explained. “Unfortunately, it didn't work out in this area but the fact that someone called it in and cared and was concerned enough to call that in, was extremely important and it goes to show you that people out there still do care.” 

Gossen said reporting reckless drivers helps as the public on the roadways is the “eyes and ears out there.” He adds identifiers are extremely important.

“If you're behind that vehicle, obviously a license plate, something unique to that vehicle, if you just say, a white, pickup truck, well, that doesn't give us a whole lot of information to go on there’s a lot of those. But if we have something very specific that we can put out and be on the lookout for, that does certainly help a lot,” Gossen said. 

Gossen said to call 911 if attempting to report a vehicle and the dispatcher will connect you with whatever agency is closest to you.

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