Woman, toddler die when car goes into bayou

Tragic news out of east Houston last night: A woman and her 2-year-old son were killed when their car slid into Hunting Bayou, just off the East Freeway. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that the accident could have been totally preventable — KPRC reports that the car went into the bayou when the woman, 27-year-old Asia Horn, missed the exit ramp at Federal Road and decided to try getting off the freeway by cutting across the grass.

The accident happened around 10 p.m. Several witnesses saw the car slide into the water, where it landed upside down; about six people stopped to try to help. "There was a young man down there helping her already, pushing the car up. When the car got up, he helped get the car seat," one of the men, Jaison Smith, told KTRK. They were able to get Timarion, the child, out of the car, and the Chronicle reports that he appeared to begin breathing. Horn was pulled out of the car next, and witnesses gave both of them CPR until paramedics arrived — but unfortunately, both were pronounced dead on arrival at Southeast Memorial Hospital.

It's not totally clear from news reports whether Horn was simply going too fast and skidded down the grassy embankment into the bayou — a witness told the Chronicle that she saw Horn's car coming up behind her at high speed, and it appeared that Horn swerved to take the Federal exit and missed — or whether she actually tried to get to Federal Road by going down the embankment. Either way, it seems Horn didn't have much of a chance once she hit the wet ground: "It was really wet, so I imagine she just lost control since it was so wet and muddy in there and couldn't stop with all of the recent rain that we had," HPD Sgt. R.C. Gonzales told Channel 13.