FORNEY, Texas — A Heath man has been arrested and charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter in a fiery crash Monday morning in Forney that tragically killed two Kaufman women.
FORNEY, Texas — A Heath man has been arrested and charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter in a fiery crash Monday morning in Forney that tragically killed two Kaufman women.
The crash was reported at approximately 10:51 a.m. on Monday, January 20, 2020, on the eastbound U.S. Highway 80 service road at the Gateway Boulevard bridge.
Police say 61-year-old Royce Freebourn of Heath, Texas, was intoxicated when he ran a stop sign at a high rate of speed and struck another vehicle at the intersection.
"Investigation revealed that the driver of a Land Rover SUV was traveling eastbound on the frontage road at a high rate of speed," Forney Police Department Chief Micah Lunt said during a press conference on Monday afternoon. "According to a witness that we interviewed on scene, he ran a stop sign while he was traveling eastbound and collided with a smaller Ford Focus vehicle that had just entered the intersection traveling northbound on Gateway Boulevard."
The impact of the collision pushed both vehicles several yards east of the intersection and engulfed the vehicles in flames.
Freebourn was identified as the driver of the Land Rover. He was transported to Baylor, Scott & White in Sunnyvale, Texas, where he remains hospitalized with what were described as non-life threatening injuries. He has been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter.
"The officers observed signs of intoxication on scene consistent with someone who is intoxicated," Lunt said. "As a course of our investigation, we did obtain a blood specimen from the subject but, we don't know the results of that analysis yet."
The two deceased individuals were identified by police as Margarita Bottello and Yazmin Villagomez Martinez, both adults of Kaufman, Texas.
Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to contact the Forney Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division at (972) 564-7607. Additionally, tipsters can report anonymously to the Kaufman County Crime Stoppers at (877) 847-7522.
This is a developing story.