Child killed in Sunday accident

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

For the fourth time in recent weeks, a pedestrian was struck and killed on in a rural area of Caldwell County on Sunday evening.
The tragic accident happened outside of Lytton Springs, near the intersection of FM 1854 and Highway 21, just before 9 p.m.
According to Sgt. Darryl Jirrall of the Texas Department of Pub

lic Safety, 5-year-old Ezekiel Ray Elizondo was struck and killed by a passing vehicle outside of what appeared to be a family gathering in rural Caldwell County on Sunday. The driver, Keith Drewy, 26, returned to the scene after realizing he had hit something, but suspected someone at the gathering had thrown something at his vehicle.
“When he got back, there was a confrontation, and [Drewy] continued on to his father”s house,” Jirrall said. “When they got back to the scene, that was when he found out that he had hit the child.”
Jirrall said Drewy”s father lives nearby and knows people in the area. However, Jirrall did not identify either the area residents, or the parents of the child.
Although Drewy was arrested at the scene for driving with a suspended license, Jirrall said the incident is still under investigation. However, he noted there is no evidence at this time to indicate that either alcohol or excessive speed were factors in the accident.
Elizondo was the fifth person to be killed in an auto-pedestrian accident in and around the accidents happened near or after dark, mostly on highly populated roads, but outside of well-lit areas. The increasing frequency of such incidents is causing concern for Caldwell County law enforcement.
“In each of the incidents, you have several different factors that contributed,” said Sheriff Daniel Law. “That being the case, there”s no real way to say “this thing or that thing could stop it from happening.” But the traffic in our rural areas is something we”re going to have to be more and more aware of as we continue to grow.”
Law suggested that the county”s growing population spurred by development in Austin is a major factor to consider in road safety.
“The folks coming in think of us as a rural, sleepy county and the folks already here don”t think about new people coming in and the roads being used more,” he said.
Pedestrians can wear bright colors and stay well off the roadways, but they still have to watch the cars and the cars still have to watch them, Law said in closing.