​Zoe Espinosa and her daughter Savanna Lee never paid attention to the pipelines dotting the grassy fields near their Deer Park home – or the absence of concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from crashing into them. Then one of the pipelines exploded in September – hit by a sports utility vehicle. The crash killed the driver and produced a tower of flames that burned and melted nearby homes, cars and power lines for nearly four days.

It was after 1 a.m. and the car speeding south in the northbound lanes of Highway 360 near Dallas-Fort Worth was running out of roadway. But as the car approached the intersection where the highway ends in Mansfield, the driver kept going straight – crashing into a natural gas pipeline station that had little protection from vehicles despite its proximity to the highway. Its only barrier: A wood fence.