Pablo Alfonso Banos Killed in Motorcycle Accident in San Antonio, TX
San Antonio, TX — August 19, 2023, Pablo Banos was killed as the result of a motorcycle accident at around 8:11 p.m. on U.S. Highway 90.
Initial details about the crash say it happened on eastbound lanes of the highway near Westoak Road and the Loop 13/Military Drive exit.
Authorities say they believe 25-year-old Pablo Banos was the operator of a Honda motorcycle going along U.S. 90 when the bike lost control. It reportedly struck the inside barrier and ejected Banos, then careened off the side of the road along the exit ramp.
Due to the crash, Banos sustained fatal injuries. Statements say he was wearing a helmet at the time. While the exact cause of the crash is unclear right now, authorities included claims that the victim had a BAC over three times the legal limit following testing.
To be clear, I don't bring this up to upset anyone. On the contrary, if the claim of alcohol usage is true here, it bothers me that authorities would include that without even suggesting they're looking into where the alcohol came from. Their neighbors over in Harris County tend to be very public with their pursuit of bars anytime there is an incident where they suspect alcohol as a factor. I have yet to see those steps taken publicly by officials in Bexar County.
I'll give you an example of why this matters. I handled a wrongful death case against a bar a while back where a man going home after a night out accidentally fell down an embankment and suffered fatal injuries. People in the public seeing that story had no qualms with putting all the blame on the victim because he was drunk, and that's all there was to the story as far as they were concerned. But once we looked into things more thoroughly, their tune changed.
Our investigation revealed that the servers at the bar served the man well past when it was obvious the man had become a danger to himself. He could barely walk to and from the bathroom, but the drinks kept coming so long as he was paying. Only after all that came to light did authorities bother to step in and pursue criminal charges.
I certainly don't know anything more about this crash than what police have already released to the public, so I can't say if this situation is at all like the example above. But while the authorities in places like Harris County give me hope that the public is catching onto the importance of getting the full story after crashes like this, other jurisdictions around Texas continue to fall short. Hopefully authorities in San Antonio will show they, too, are making strides in getting all the facts after crashes like this.
