I hated to read about a horrible automobile accident last night where a young woman from Rio Vista lost control of her car on County Road 1106 west of tis small town and caused the death of Charlotte Tillison, age 18, a senior at Rio Vista High School who also worked at the Braum’s in Cleburne.
The driver, Shelbi Misener of Rio Vista — who had just turned 16 — and two other passengers, Lance Rejcek, 19, of Rio Vista and Bryan Kiker, 19, of Waco, were ejected in the wreck. They were rushed to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. Lance Rejecek is unfortunately reported as being critically injured.
Charlotte Tillison’s death has been ruled a homicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, although no charges have yet been filed. As a personal injury lawyer, I rarely see this happen unless alcohol or drug use was involved. At this time, that is not clear.The narrow dirt road was dry.
Misener was greatly exceeding the 40 mph speed limit driving a 2002 Volkswagen Passat when she lost control of the car about 10:30 p.m. The car left the roadway, rolled through a ditch, and hit two trees, causing the car to split in half.
As the father of a 21 year old daughter (who caused a minor noninjury accident when she was 16 — and I grounded her from driving for a year), I know how hard it is to teach teenagers how to drive safely.
And as a personal injury attorney over the last 31 years, I have seen far too many crashes involving high school students. I just settled a case two weeks ago involving a young man who was driving 60 mph in a 40 zone and collided into my clients.
My heart goes out to the family of Charlotte and to the other injured teens and their families.