Child OK after wreck
By BRENDA SOMMER news1@leader-news.com

Details are still sketchy on a wreck Saturday that sent a child to a Houston hospital by helicopter ambulance.

Around 9:30 p.m. Sept. 8, a 2000 Chevrolet Prism sedan was taking the Hwy. 71 exit off U.S. 59, on the north side of the highway.

The driver, 48-year-old Gayle Gilbert Ayala of Corpus Christi, possibly was going too fast when the exit ramp makes a sharp curve before joining the service road.

Details of just how the car was wrecked were not available from El Campo police at presstime, but no other vehicles were involved in the accident.

In the car with Ayala were a 49-year-old woman and three children, two age 8 and one age 7.

One of the children - an 8-year-old boy - was flown to Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital by Life Flight helicopter with possible internal injuries.

According to hospital public affairs officer Tanesha Washington, the boy was treated and released the same day.

The other four occupants of the car were checked out by medics at the scene, but their injuries didn't warrant a trip to the hospital.

"The case is still under investigation, but right now we know the driver had no valid driver's license and no insurance," El Campo Police Chief Jim Elliott said.