HARDIN COUNTY, TX (04/20/2017) — A two-year-old child named Dixie has died from injuries sustained in an accident on FM 770 Thursday morning.
DPS reports that at about 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, a driver who may have fallen asleep at the wheel caused a serious accident after veering into oncoming lanes of traffic in FM 770 near Saratoga.
63-year-old Billy Ray Briscoe Sr. (of Village Mills) was driving a black Dodge Ram 3500 Super Duty pickup truck northbound on FM 770 when the pickup allegedly crossed over into oncoming lanes of traffic and stuck a silver Mitsubishi sedan driven by 24-year-old Cody Norman (of Kountze). A silver Dodge Durango, which was traveling behind the pickup truck, veered off the road and struck a small tree while attempting to avoid the accident.
Cody Norman suffered minor injuries and was transported to by ambulance to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont. His two-year-old passenger, Dixie (who was properly secured in a rear child seat), was seriously injured as the brunt of the impact was to the passenger-side of the vehicle.
An air ambulance attempted to land at the scene to transport the child, but was unable to land due to fog. The toddler was then transported by ground ambulance to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont. Shortly after, she was transported to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston via air ambulance (CareFlite) due to the severity of her head injury. Unfortunately, she was pronounced deceased Thursday night.
Briscoe was taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, and the driver of the Durango was reportedly uninjured.
Commentary:
While DPS officials are currently investigating this tragic crash, it’s worth noting that the DPS troopers suspect Briscoe may have fallen asleep at the wheel prior to the collision. We will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.
If you would like to donate to the victim’s family in this time of need, you can do so through this GoFundMe campaign.
