TROY, Texas — Raiden Garcia, 18, was driving home when he died in a car accident at the intersection of Love's Blvd. and the southbound I-35 frontage road in Troy.
Four people were taken to a nearby hospital. Garcia died at the scene.
"I knew my son was on his way home because I talked to him at 10:30," Garcia's Mom Christine Mercer said. "So I knew when they woke me up and he wasn't there something had happened."
Troy Police Chief Gary Smith said the accident happened just before 10:55 p.m. Sunday. He also said it's the third crash since Smith talked to 6 News after Texas Department of Transportation's announced it would conduct a study on the intersection to try to make it safer on May 14.
"Officers come to this location with a high degree of frequency," Smith said.
This crash comes 3-1/2 years after Garcia's sister, 17-year-old Katlyn Fuller, was killed in a crash on a dangerous section of a different road in Troy.
Mercer said before her daughter's crash, people in Troy had cried for a lower speed limit and reflectors on that stretch of Old Waco Rd. After the tragedy, they were put in place.
As the town calls for a lower speed limit and some sort of warning measures be put in place for traffic on the frontage road, Mercer said there's the grief of losing her son mixed with anger.
"Why do my kids have to die before you get out there and fix something?" Mercer said. "He should be alive and here, right now. They're going to fix it, now. Because I'm not going to let another parent bury their child because they can't put some blinking lights out there or something to tell them there is something at that intersection."
The TxDOT Waco District office told 6 News in a statement, "The number one priority for TxDOT is and always will be the safety of the traveling public on Texas roads. While local law enforcement continues to investigate, TxDOT cannot speculate about the potential causes of this crash. The department’s review of this intersection is ongoing."
State Representative Hugh Shine (R - 55th district) visited the intersection Monday with Chief Smith to see what Smith and the town have asked for help with.
Smith said all changes along the interstate have to come from TxDOT. He also said he'd start a conversation with TxDOT later Monday, rather than waiting for the study.
"I will pick up the phone and I will be talking to the district engineer and, if it's necessary for him to come out here and meet with the chief and I, we'll do that," Shine said. "Otherwise, something needs to be done here, immediately."
Shine said he will focus on putting a third stop sign in at the intersection, for traffic approaching southbound on the frontage road, to make it an all-way stop.
Mercer said she will push for change until it happens.
"Pray for us and pray for justice that they fix this intersection so that his death is not in vain," Mercer said.