FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – Just over a year after her death, friends and family are still pushing for change and action after 37-year-old Lisa Smith was killed inside her Sienna Plantation neighborhood. The mother was walking her son to school last October when they were both struck by an SUV.
"Since launching the campaign I've had hundreds of people write into me about the dangers of the roads," Smith's sister Gina Torry said.
In the past year, Torry has set up the "Justice For Lisa Campaign." On Monday night, about two dozen family and friends met at a coffee shop to discuss desired changes to that neighborhood's roads and movement in Smith’s case.
"We are asking for her case to go to a jury of her peers, to go to a grand jury," Torry said. "Let them decide whether there's enough evidence of negligence to move the case forward."
Last week, outgoing Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey told Channel 2 he had no plans to bring the case to a grand jury because he didn't believe case rises to the level of criminal negligence.
Kelly Rangel was one of Lisa Smith's best friends. Rangel said safety improvements to the intersection where the accident happened have only been temporary. She said she wants permanent improvements because like all parents she wants one thing for her children.
"I want them safe," she said. "And I want every single kid in Sienna safe and I see reckless drivers and it's a problem."
Sources tell Channel 2 that the driver who struck Smith and her son has returned to her home country of India but Smith's family hopes she could be extradited if charges were ever brought against her. Smith's son survived the accident.