RIP.
A young Irish woman has sadly passed away after she was struck by a car in Texas.
Irish student Melissa Mapa was killed in a crash in Euless, Fort Worth on Tuesday, May 10 at around 11.55pm local time.
The girl grew up in South Dublin but moved to the States to study at the University of Texas in Arlington.
Local police have confirmed she died after a crash that involved a man fleeing a traffic stop.
According to Euless Police, the motorist was seen driving with two different license plates, one having expired in 2020 and the other not matching the vehicle.
An officer then turned on his lights as a way to stop the vehicle but instead of slowing down, they sped up.
The vehicle was only committing traffic offences so the officer did not pursue the vehicle and deactivated his emergency lights and siren and reduced his speed.
The driver then continued to speed up and around a half-mile east from where the vehicle had originally fled, the officer saw a flash of light.
Approaching the intersection, he discovered the vehicle had crashed.
The driver fled the scene leaving the passenger trapped in the car, and when the officer approached a car that had been hit, he saw that a woman was unresponsive in the driver’s seat.
The woman was later pronounced dead.
Local man Marcus Dunson witnessed the crash, telling local news outlet 5NBC: “He reached in to feel the lady’s pulse, and shook his head and I’m assuming she’s gone.
“I heard another gentleman scream from around the corner over there and I went up and it was a friend of mine,” said Dunson about the passenger trapped in the suspect car.
“I told him, man you got to stay where you’re at, you might have a spinal injury I can’t pull you out.”
He then said he found the driver in a ditch with injuries nearby.
“I hear a scream coming from down the street this way, and I looked in the ditch and there’s another guy in the ditch, he ran from the scene of the accident and dove into the ditch,” he said.
The driver was later arrested by police and they continue to investigate the crash.
