HOUSTON – A cab driver involved in a fatal crash has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Houston police said David Houston, 56, a Yellow Cab driver, was transporting METROLift patients when he crashed into a stalled 18-wheeler on the shoulder of the northbound lanes of the Eastex Freeway near Laura Koppe Road Friday.
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The cab's passengers, Sandra Smart, a 56-year-old mother of four from Houston, and Dorothy Britton, an 84-year-old preacher's wife also from Houston, were killed.
The two were coming from a dialysis center, according to police.
Houston was also injured in the wreck and remained in the hospital Monday.
Smart's brother, Howell Davis, said his sister had been receiving dialysis treatment for 10 years and relied on the METROLift service to get her to the dialysis center.
"She loved to laugh, loved to cook. She loved to dress. She loved her kids. She loved all of us. She was full of life," Davis said.
"All those years on dialysis and to be taken ... It's a hard pill to swallow," said Ashley Jackson, Smart's daughter. "It's a hard pill to swallow. A piece of me is gone. Words can't explain how my heart hurts."
Eva Taylor, Britton's former neighbor and family friend of 30 years questioned how this could have happened.
"My thing is, I just wonder what he was doing," she said. "Did he see it? Did he have time to react?"
Investigators said witnesses reported that Houston was speeding and weaving when they said he veered off the road and into the tanker.
Attorney and state Rep. Sylvester Turner is representing a victim's family.
"It could have been anyone. There are a lot of people who depend on taxi service, on METROLift every, single day," Turner said.
Turner said his team will reconstruct the crash.
"I think what we can do is be thorough in the investigation in the accident and make sure all parties involved act a lot more prudently the next time around," he said.
"Nothing is going to bring my sister back, but I would like for her legacy to be that other families don't have to go through what we're going through," Davis said.
Houston's nephew offered condolences to the victims' families while supporting his uncle.
"We have no answers for it," he said. "(He's) a good driver. Everybody who works with him likes him. He was in the Navy, a veteran. There's not too much bad about the guy. Just an unfortunate situation."
METRO President and Chief Executive Officer George Greanias commented about the fatal crash.
"Our first thoughts are with the victims' families during this very difficult time," Greanias wrote in a prepared statement. "The METROLift program is a close-knit community and we will have counselors available to assist our dispatchers and drivers as needed."
Smart's family said she was an active member of the Fifth Ward Church of Christ. Family members said her funeral service will be held on Saturday.