It's been five weeks since a 14-year-old unlicensed driver triggered a deadly five-car pileup on the Crosstown Expressway — and Corpus Christi police still haven't said whether he'll face criminal charges in the death of a 43-year-old man.
Was the teen racing? Did he have permission to drive the car? Police aren't saying. What they have said, the day after the April 6 crash, is that they were not ruling anything out.
I submitted an open records request for the crash report and found that the boy — who turned 15 this past Sunday — is identified as the driver who set off a chain reaction that killed Julio Antonio "Tiger" Flores, Jr., ejecting him from a Jeep Grand Cherokee on northbound State Highway 286 near Morgan Avenue. Flores later died at Spohn Hospital Shoreline. He was 43.
The crash report shows five vehicles and eight people were involved:
- Unit 1 — silver 2004 Infiniti G35, driven by a 14-year-old male, with a 15-year-old male passenger
- Unit 2 — silver 2007 Chrysler 300, driven by a 16-year-old female
- Unit 3 — gray 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by a 17-year-old female, with a 17-year-old male passenger and Flores, 43, as a rear passenger
- Unit 4 — red 2016 Ford F-150, driven by a 52-year-old man from Louisiana
- Unit 5 — gray 2004 Honda Odyssey van, driven by a 32-year-old woman
According to the report, the 32-year-old woman in the Honda Odyssey told officers she saw the silver Infiniti G35 rapidly approaching in the center lane, heading toward the Jeep that Flores was riding in. The teen driver attempted to pass a silver Chrysler 300 in the left lane — driven by a 16-year-old girl — and struck it. The impact pushed the Infiniti back into the center lane, where it hit the Jeep. Both vehicles crossed the right lane just in front of the F-150 and went down the embankment. The Jeep flipped and rolled several times. Flores, seated in the rear, was ejected.
Meanwhile, the Chrysler 300 also lost control after being struck, sliding across the highway and hitting both the F-150 and the Honda Odyssey van.
The 16-year-old driver of the Chrysler 300 was treated at the scene and cited for driving without a license.
The 14-year-old driver of the Infiniti and his 15-year-old passenger were also treated at the scene.
The teen driver faces two citations: no driver's license and an unsafe lane change.
Officers could not determine whether Flores was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Several questions still remain. Was the 14-year-old male racing? Will he face criminal charges in connection with the fatal crash? The report shows the owner of the Infiniti G35 doesn't share the same address as the boy involved in the crash. Did the teen have permission from the owner to drive his vehicle?
The same for the 16-year-old unlicensed driver. She was not the owner of the Chrysler 300.
I sent those questions to the Corpus Christi Police Department and received the following response:
We have spoken with the supervisor in the traffic division. As of right now they are still investigating the accident and are unable to answer those questions right now. There are still no updates at this time in reference to that accident.
Five weeks. One man dead. Two unlicensed minors behind the wheel. And still no answers.
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