HOUSTON
He'd tried to rescue two other friends whose vehicle plunged into that pit off Sam Houston Parkway and Pearland Parkway at around 1am.
"Right before the accident, we stopped at a red light, and I actually told him to slow down," said Sheramie Hutchings, a friend who was involved in the fatal accident.
Hutchings says that was the last thing she said to her best friend's boyfriend around midnight. Then minutes later, he lost control of the truck with her best friend inside, plunging head first into a 30-foot deep construction pit. Hutchings was a distance behind them, but another friend saw the accident and tried to help. Police say tragically, that teen somehow stumbled then fell to his death.
"It was real dark and you couldn't tell how deep it was," said Kirby Babineaux, who also was involved in the accident. "That's how he fell. He couldn't tell how deep it was."
Rescue crews struggled for hours to free the driver and his passenger, eventually using cranes to lift them both out of the deep hole.
Hours later, parents and friends, still in shock, say they just had to see it for themselves. Meanwhile, dozens of students from Pearland Senior High School have been back and forth to the hospital checking on their friends.
"She broke her pelvis bones and she has got a gash all the way up here, and all the way around her ear and they found a hole in her head," Babineaux said. "He had broken ribs, a collapsed lungs and something with his spine."
And while friends are grateful for the rescue, this corner will forever be remembered for the tragedy.
"I never knew that kid personally, but I've seen him before," said Dania Ramos, whose friend was involved in the accident. "I know who he is, like I pray that his family, like, dude, that's terrible. That kid was probably my age."
Both the driver and the passenger are still in the hospital. Police believe speed played a factor in the accident.
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