Three TxDOT workers hurt in crash

Three men who work for the Texas Department of Transportation were hurt when their pickup truck crashed into a tree while they were returning from a training class.

State troopers say the men were returning to Woodville from a training class in Newton on Thursday afternoon when their pickup truck left Highway 190 West and hit a tree near Steinhagen Reservoir.

Troopers say Jay Castleberry, 37, of Chester, was driving.  Castleberry and his passengers, Richard Woodrome, also of Chester, and Brad Murray, of Kirbyville, received injuries described as non-life threatening.

Castleberry and Woodrome were taken by ambulance to the Tyler County Hospital in Woodville.  Murray was taken to Christus Jasper Memorial Hospital.

Marc Shepherd, TxDOT spokesman in Beaumont, says the men are maintenance workers based at TxDOT's Woodville office.

"We heard about it yesterday," said Shepherd.  "There's always the big fear something worse happened.  When you're told you need to come up and have a supervisor present and then you see the vehicle and the shape it's in, and then you find out they're not seriously hurt - that's good news."

Shepherd said it's not clear yet what caused Castleberry to leave the road. 

He says the men were wearing seatbelts.

"If they hadn't have been they wouldn't have survived," said Shepherd,