-
Two college students were killed after being struck head-on by a suspected drunk driver on Sunday.
-
One of the victims, Clyde Thompson, previously survived being hit by a drunk driver two years ago.
-
“To get killed by the very thing you survived … it hurts,” Thompson’s mother told local media.
A 19-year-old college student was killed by a suspected drunk driver this weekend after he survived being hit in a separate DUI incident just two years ago, according to Texas authorities and local media reports.
Clyde Thompson and 19-year-old Tonysha Lashay Smith were killed on Sunday after the Nissan Altima they were driving was struck head-on by a Chevrolet truck in Beaumont, Texas, the Beaumont Police Department said in a press release.
The driver of the truck, who was hospitalized, now faces charges, according to authorities, who said “alcohol is believed to be a contributing factor.” The Port Arthur News identified 22-year-old Antonio DeJesus Delgado as the driver.
Both Thompson and Smith were students at Lamar University, the college confirmed to KBMT News, and the outlet reported that Thompson’s twin sister lived in the dorms with Smith. The university’s Student Government Association in a statement said Thompson was majoring in kinesiology and Smith was an aspiring nurse.
The two friends were reportedly on their way back to campus following a late night search for food when the crash happened.
Sunday’s tragedy is compounded by a 2019 incident in which Thompson and a friend were hit by a drunk driver while walking home from a late night basketball practice, according to KHOU. Thompson was placed into a coma after suffering massive damage to his brain which required four surgeries, the outlet reported.
Doctors reportedly gave him less than a 50% chance of survival. But Thompson did recover, calling his return to high school for his senior year “a miracle” at the time.
Thompson’s mother, Tamala Johnson said her son’s death is “just unreal.”
“To get killed by the very thing you survived … it hurts,” Tamala Johnson told KHOU.
“He was robbed the first time and this time he was completely robbed. Nineteen, bright future; he knew what he wanted,” she told KBMT.
In a GoFundMe, Thompson’s sister called her brother a “dedicated son, brother, college student, and athlete.”
“My heart is beyond hurt. Never in one million years did my family and I expect for my brother to fall victim to a drunk driver again,” she wrote.
Read the original article on Insider
