Pedestrian Struck, Killed by Vehicle on US-77 in Falls County, TX
Falls County, TX — August 12, 2022, a 27-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle on U.S. Highway 77 in Falls County.
Authorities say the incident happened around 10:20 p.m. on US-77 near County Road 466. Preliminary investigation suggests a Ford F-250 pickup truck was towing a trailer south on the highway as the victim was reportedly walking southward ahead in the same lane. Investigators alleged dark conditions and the pedestrian's dark clothing kept the pickup driver from seeing him and the vehicle's front-right quarter made contact with the man.
The impact threw the pedestrian off the road and he suffered fatal injuries. The driver remained at the scene.
No further information is currently available.
Given the reported details of this incident some folks may feel there's little else to say. When figuring out who's at fault for an accident they often look no further than the people directly involved; in this case that would be the driver or the pedestrian. Preliminary reports leaned heavily in the driver's favor, and I have no particular reason to argue with that, but at the same time that doesn't necessarily mean all the fault lies with the victim.
For instance, authorities also reported that the man's family told them he was drinking prior to the accident and may have been intoxicated as he walked on the road. If so, it's important to find out where that drinking took place. If a bar or other alcohol-serving business illegally over-served him until his judgment was compromised, it may be partially responsible for what happened on the highway.
Something like that came up not long ago, when a family called us after their lived one was hit by a car while walking on a freeway ramp. Our investigators learned a local bowling alley broke the law by continuing to serve him long past his limits; as he tried to walk home he got disoriented and walked into the road. What some originally wrote off as a careless pedestrian actually involved a dram shop law violation, which meant the bowling alley was partly responsible for that man's death.
I don't know that anything like that was involved in Falls County, but the bigger point is that things aren't always as simple as a few sentences in a report make them seem. Every accident deserves careful and thorough investigation to get the whole story for the people who need and deserve it.
