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14-year-old boy on bike struck while crossing Red River Street

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A bike lays in the middle of Red River Street following a late afternoon wreck involving two vehicles and a teenager on a bicycle. The teen was struck by a SUV, which also struck the pick-up truck in the background on Friday.
  • BY JULIAN CAVAZOS - jcavazos@vicad.com
  • Originally published May 22, 2009 at 7:57 p.m., updated May 22, 2009 at 11 p.m.

  • FOLLOW SAFELY

    Victoria police said 10 crashes occurred Friday, mostly rear enders, said Sgt. Julian Huerta. He advised to keep a safe following distance.

    When people are following too close and someone in front has to stop, you'll end ...

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    • FOLLOW SAFELY

    Victoria police said 10 crashes occurred Friday, mostly rear enders, said Sgt. Julian Huerta. He advised to keep a safe following distance.

    When people are following too close and someone in front has to stop, you'll end up running into the back of them. Mathematics won't let you do that.

A 14-year-old boy was struck by an SUV as he crossed Red River Street around 7 p.m. Friday.

Joseph Garcia and his friend Jeremy Espitia, 15, were going from Jeremy's house on Jecker Street to Joseph's house on Levi Street when the collision occurred. Joseph was riding Jeremy's bike and Jeremy was walking, Jeremy said.

A woman driving a black Chevrolet Tracker travelling east on Red River Street, swerved to miss Joseph as he crossed the street, but struck him and then collided into a 1986 Ford Ranger truck driven by Danny Kearney, 57, of Victoria. Kearney was traveling west on Red River.

"(Joseph and the woman) were side by side, and then all of a sudden, he just out of the blue turned in front of her," Kearney said. "There was nothing she could do."

Joseph was transported to DeTar Hospital Navarro, police Lt. Greg Najvar said.

Najvar was not sure of his condition.

A hospital spokesman said information would have to be released by the hospital's administration on Tuesday.

The sight of seeing Joseph get hit was hard to take, said Penny Kearney, who was riding with her husband.

"He was hit, and then he went flying. I didn't want to see it." she said. "I would've rather had (the other driver) hit us instead of that kid. At least we were in the truck. We had seatbelts. He was on the bike. He didn't have nothing except himself."

The woman driving the Tracker, whose identify was unavailable by police, swerved onto the curb of a home after hitting the Kearneys' truck. She had to be extricated from her vehicle. She was taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro, Najvar said.

She was later released from DeTar, Sgt. Julian Huerta said.

Besides dealing with the trauma of Garcia's accident, Penny also began to worry about how she and her husband would babysit their grandson in Telferner each day. Their truck, which is insured, is the only vehicle they have.

"My little grandson, we go to Telferner everyday to watch him. He needs me everyday, and he's just 6."

Jimmy and Linda Kincaid, who live at the corner of where the wreck occurred, were sitting in their kitchen, and suddenly heard a "terrible crunch." He dialed 911.

"I feel sorry for the people driving the cars. I know they went out of their way to not hit this young man, and ended up paying the price for it," he said. "And, of course, there's a young man in the hospital."

The Kincaids said that in the 35 years they've lived there, there have been at least eight times when the telephone pole at the corner of Levi-Red River intersection has been hit.

"Especially since Laurent Street is under construction, people are using Levi as an alternate street, and traffic has been terrible," said Linda Kincaid, 55.

The bike Joseph was riding is bad luck, said Esabel E. Garcia, Jeremy's mother.

"I'll tell you one thing, we're going to get rid of that bike," Garcia said. "We just got it back from the police department. (Jeremy) had another friend riding it one time, and that boy got stopped and arrested. We're just now getting it back. That's probably why the other kid got rid of it too. So we're talking about shredding it."



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