3 family members dead after apparent street racing wreck
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.