Crash sends pedestrian through windshield; driver thought he’d hit an animal, cops say
James HartleyDecember 17, 2023 at 9:16 PM
A pedestrian who was hit by a car Saturday night in Dallas crashed through its windshield — ending up in the passenger seat — as the driver continued his journey until reaching a Jack in the Box parking lot in White Settlement. When police were called to the scene around 11 p.m. Saturday they found the victim in the passenger seat, according to the news release.
Paramedics were called to the scene, but the victim was already dead, police said. The driver of the gray Kia Forte, 31-year-old Nester Lujuan Flores, told officers he thought he’d hit an animal somewhere between Dallas and White Settlement, the news release states. Investigators said in an update Sunday that investigators in Dallas County determined that Flores hit the pedestrian on a service road in Dallas.
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, which is taking over the case, said the crash happened on the Interstate 30 service road near Cockrell Hill Road. There, according to White Settlement police, Dallas County authorities found human remains they believe are the result of the crash. Investigators with White Settlement police believe Flores drove 38 miles with his windshield broken and a dead body in his passenger seat.
Flores was seemingly unaware that a person was dead inside his car, police said. The victim’s name will be released after the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has notified next-of-kin. Police have not said if they believe Flores was impaired at the time, though a person who called 911 said the driver was slumped over the steering wheel and the car having “extensive front end, hood and windshield damage,” according to the news release.
Investigators said it appears Flores actually arrived at the Jack in the Box in the 8700 block of the I-30 restaurant service road, about 8 miles west of downtown Fort Worth, sometime between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. according to the release. One officer quickly realized that there was an apparent dead body in the passenger seat of the vehicle. The officer got Flores out of the vehicle and detained him, according to the release.
That’s when he told the officer he thought he’d hit an animal. The case is eerily similar to what is called the “windshield murder,” a crash on Oct.
26, 2001, in south Fort Worth in which driver Chante Mallard hit Gregory Glenn Briggs. He crashed into her windshield was stuck there, as she drove home and parked in her garage, leaving him to die hours later.
Mallard was convicted of murder in 2003 and is serving a 50-year sentence in a Texas prison. Authorities in White Settlement asked other law enforcement agencies in the area to help them determine where Saturday’s crash took place, leading them to connect with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators have asked police from Arlington, Fort Worth and Grand Prairie and sheriff offices in Dallas and Tarrant counties for assistance.
They intially believed the crash happened somewhere between Arlington and White Settlement because police cameras that read license plates picked up the car in Arlington around New York Avenue and East Mayfield Road around 6 p.m. Flores is charged with intoxication manslaughter, according to police. Investigators received a blood sample with a warrant and are waiting for results.
Court records from Collin County indicate Flores pleaded guilty in 2021 to driving while intoxicated in 2020.
Court records list the sentence as “local jail,” but do say for how long.