ONE CRITICALLY INJURED IN AUTO-PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT
A Bellville man was arrested and charged with DWI Intoxicated Assault Saturday evening around 10:30pm
after an auto-pedestrian accident in Chappell Hill.
Eighteen-year old Tyler Markle was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan, where he remains in critical condition. The other boy with him, 20-year old Johnny Walker, was not injured.
Markle was struck by a 2008 Ford Pickup truck, driven by sixty-five year old Albin Bohac, of Bellville.
Bohac was charged with DWI Intoxicated Assault/with Vehicle, and was released on a $1,000 bond.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Trooper Jimmy Morgan, the two boys were racing on foot up FM 2447 westbound, when a pickup truck came up behind them.
Walker says he crossed over into the left lane of traffic, but according to DPS reports, Markle stayed in the lane of traffic where the pickup was traveling.
The case is still under investigation.
KWHI News was finally able to get complete details of this story after 2 days of phone calls to various law enforcement officials. Situations like this are becoming an all too frequent event with not only law enforcement, but all governmental bodies. We initially learned about the accident from a listener. When we initially contacted the DPS trooper who handled the case, she would only give us the details that led to the “Foot Race” story. She would not give any names, and would not confirm that anyone had been arrested. The JP who handled the arraignment is out of town, and no one could give us information about an arrest. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office insisted that we file an official Open Records Request which the County Attorney would have to review before ruling on whether or not we could have the information. Finally, Tuesday afternoon a DPS official called and gave us complete information on the case, including the names of the people involved. It should not be this difficult to get what is already public information. It also makes me wonder if someone was trying to cover this event up for some reason.
KWHI News has learned that there was never an intended cover up of this incident. However, there was a communication breakdown among the various law enforcement and judicial entities involved, and the news media. Part of that breakdown was the fact that the Department of Public Safety investigated the case, and the local Sergeant was sent to work on the Mexican border immediately afterward. KWHI intends to meet with all of the local entities to try to improve future communications with the news media concerning major auto accidents and major criminal cases.