There have now been four fatal auto-pedestrian accidents in this region within the past week, which comes during an unprecedented year for such deaths. The latest occurred early Wednesday evening in Lufkin.
KTRE 9 News is reporting that 43-year-old Nakishia Renee Samuel was trying to cross Ellen Trout Drive when she was struck by a car. She was rushed to a hospital where she died a short time later.
Meanwhile, two pedestrians have been killed this week in Nacogdoches County.
Shortly after 5:00 Wednesday morning on Highway 259 about 4 miles north of Nacogdoches, state troopers say 68-year-old Mardella Nooner, of Nacogdoches, tried to cross the highway and was struck and killed by an SUV.
This followed an early Monday evening fatal auto-ped accident in Nacogdoches in which Eddie Simmons, 67, of Nacogdoches, was struck and killed by a pickup truck when he tried to cross the 4100 block of North Street.
Meanwhile, in Port Arthur 40-year-old Ernesto Escareno was struck and killed by a pickup truck very early Tuesday morning as he tried to cross Highway 365.
It has been a terrible year for pedestrian fatalities in Texas, in fact back in October the Texas Department of Transportation issued a statement about the problem and the alarming numbers in 2021.
Two fatal auto-ped accidents have been recorded in and near Jasper this year.
On Sunday, August 29th, Frederic Joshua Goleman, 59, of Jasper, was walking on the shoulder of Highway 63 West when he was struck and killed by a pickup truck. The driver, Patrick Bell, 45, of Merryville and a Louisiana state trooper, was later arrested and charged with Intoxication Manslaughter.
Nine days later, on Tuesday, September 7th, Nathaniel Greene, 34, of Kerrville, was walking alongside Highway 190 in Jasper when he was struck and killed by a car, driven by Shanise Fowler, 29, of Wiergate. No criminal charges were filed in that case.
There was another fatal auto-ped which occurred in Midland, but claimed the life of a Jasper man. On Tuesday, August 31st, 33-year-old Eric Wayne Font was walking along a service road of Interstate 20 and was hit and killed by a pickup truck.
Also in August, two highway construction workers were hit, one of which died, on Eastex Freeway in Beaumont. Andrew Mendez Lopez, 27, of Houston, was killed. Curiously, Beaumont Police have never released the name of the driver who hit them or any other details about the incident.
A month earlier, on Thursday, July 15th, Antonio Jose Thomas, 51, of Silsbee, was struck and killed by a vehicle on Highway 69 between Lumberton and Kountze. The driver didn’t stop and has never been identified.
