Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

Mayra Castillo Torres (37) and her teenage son Christopher Nuno (14) were killed when a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe struck their Nissan minivan along North Gessner Driver near Brookriver Drive at about 4:15pm Monday. Harris County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Susan Cotter has issued a statement that, according to witnesses, the 17-year old driver of the Tahoe was racing another vehicle driving alongside him. When Ms. Torres pulled away from a stop sign, the Tahoe hit her vehicle. Torres and Nuno were killed on impact. Nuno was a student at Jersey Village High School and was just leaving band practice when the accident happened. 6-year old Katia Nuno, Christopher’s sister, died at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital on Tuesday.  The teenage driver of the Tahoe involved in the fatal collision gave a statement to a Houston area television station on Tuesday denying that he was engaged in a race at the time, and stated he was driving alongside a friend who had a “loud truck” which is probably why witnesses thought he was racing. The driver claimed he was speeding perhaps a little bit above the 50MPH speed limit. The Sheriff’s Department will conduct a full reconstruction of the fatal collision to determine exactly what happened, which will probably include downloading crash data from the “black boxes” of the vehicles involved. Christopher and his mother were in the front seats and were buckled at the time of the collision, however Katia may not have been.

In the second accident this week in Houston involving a motor vehicle falling from height, a man was killed when he lost control of his Yamaha RS motorbike and fell at least 40 feet from an elevated entrance ramp leading from I-10 to US-59. The accident occurred at around 12:30am this morning and the man was transported to Ben Taub general hospital where he was pronounced dead. Apparently the man lost control and hit the retaining wall before being thrown from the motorbike and over the guard rail to the traffic lanes below. A driver of an 18-wheeler who saw the motorcycle and rider fall was able to stop his truck in time before hitting the motorcyclist. Police think the 31-year old man, who had no motorcycle license, was driving too fast when he entered the ramp.