Charges filed in fatal truck rollover
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

The alleged driver in a fatality crash outside El Campo last weekend is now facing criminal charges in the case.

Ismael Escobar-Sanchez, 19, of 703 Tennie in Wharton was booked into Wharton County Jail at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of intoxicated manslaughter and held on $300,000 bond.

The Texas Department of Public Safety investigated the one-vehicle accident early Jan. 16 on FM 1162 about 1.9 miles south of El Campo.

Emergency responders found a 1997 Ford Ranger sitting upright at the bottom of a muddy ditch on the northbound side of FM 1162. Escobar was inside and a second man was located in the mud 15 to 20 feet in front of the truck.

The truck had been northbound on FM 1162, according to Trooper Alfred Ochoa's report, when it went off the right side of the roadway and struck the embankment of a creek.

The vehicle reportedly had damage to its roof indicating it may have rolled at least one time.

Jose Augustine Torres Terrazas, 20, a Mexican national, may have been ejected when the vehicle crashed.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by Wharton County Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 Cynthia Kubicek at 5:55 a.m. Saturday.

His body was initially transported by Triska's Funeral Home and then taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

Escobar was transported from the scene via El Campo EMS to Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital with a broken leg.

Neither man was wearing a seat belt, according to Ochoa's report.