It was just another drive home Tuesday night for Hilda Lopez and her daughter as they made their way from Harlingen to Sebastian.
That is until 9:03 p.m. - a time now clearly engraved in Lopez's mind.
She said a driver traveling at a high rate of speed passed her going north bound on Highway 77.
A few seconds later, she said, a tragedy happened.
"(The driver) was swerving from lane to lane, so next thing we knew, we saw him flipping over the median,” Lopez said. “All of a sudden, I saw (these) huge orange flames."
A charred circle of grass along the highway marks where the vehicle landed and caught on fire.
It was on the opposite side of the road from the direction the car was traveling.
Lopez said 9:03 p.m. was the time she and her daughter stopped and called 911. She adds that what came next, was traumatizing.
"I rolled my windows down and all we could hear was screaming from someone,” Lopez said. “I guess they were burning.”
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety identified the victim as 28-year-old Walter de la Rosa of Nacogdoches.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
Lopez said this is the second deadly crash she’s witnessed in the past five years.
It’s also a tough lesson learned for her and her 20-year-old daughter about safety on the road.
She adds the memory of the firey crash will come rushing back every day she makes her commute down Highway 77.
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