SOUTH MONTGOMERY COUNTY-Witnesses say a teen died on Riley Fuzzell Road north of Bender’s Landing around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday as a result of street racing, according to Sgt. Terry Barnhill with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Daniel Taylor, a 17-year-old student from Spring, was pronounced dead on the scene. His passenger, 20-year-old Dale-Ross Joseph Primeaux sustained non-life threatening injuries.
The vehicles were a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup driven by Taylor, with Primeaux as his only passenger, and a 2001 Chevy 1500 pickup, driven by 17-year-old Cameron Layton, also of Spring. Layton had two male passengers. The two trucks were southbound, side by side, on a straight stretch of roadway when they collided, Barnhill said.
The official accident report states that (Taylor’s) Dodge pickup forced (Layton’s) Chevrolet pickup off to the shoulder of the road where it struck a guardrail then went back onto the roadway, striking (Taylor’s) Dodge.
The Dodge pickup went to the shoulder, then Taylor lost control of the truck, which went into a side skid before rolling over.
Taylor was already dead when EMS arrived. Textbooks were scattered around the crash site.
Barnhill said one of the trucks was traveling southbound in the northbound lane when the crash occurred.
“I think it’s just one of those things where two people got into nice trucks and decided to race,” Barnhill said. “It’s very dangerous and someone lost their life this time.”
Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Edie Connelly responded to the scene and conducted an inquest then had the body transported to the Southeast Texas Forensic Center for autopsy.
A representative of the District Attorney’s Office responded to the scene during the investigation. Barnhill said charges were likely to be filed.
“It’s normally a Class B misdemeanor,” he said. “Because someone died, it’s a felony 2.”
Shortly before the crash, the vehicles had left a gathering at a nearby home, he said, which might account for the large crowd of young people gathered and watched in horror as they began to realize their friend would not be going home this morning. A chaplain was called to help them deal with their grief.
