Sugar Land police have identified three victims who died in a Saturday accident after a driver racing another car lost control of his vehicle.
Arnold Michael Jamir, 21, of Sugar Land, drove a white Toyota Scion across the center line on State Highway 6 at about 1 p.m., police said, after racing with a Mini Cooper past Sugar Land Regional Airport.
Police investigators believe Jamir plowed his car at a high rate of speed head-on into a southbound Toyota Camry occupied by Silvino C. Garcia and his wife, Teresa Hernandez, both of Houston.
The Houston couple died at the scene of the accident, police say. Jamir was flown by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, and died three or four hours later, said Sugar Land Police Sgt. Chris Thompson.
Sugar Land Police investigators are asking for help from the public in finding a blue Mini Cooper with a white top, which eyewitnesses said was racing the Toyota Scion but sped off after the crash.
“It was pretty bad,” Thompson said of the crash. The force of the impact crumpled the Camry so badly that rescue workers had to use a Jaws of Life device to cut through the car metal before they could retrieve the man and woman inside.
The two, already dead from their injuries, “were just totally innocent,” Thompson said.
“Investigators are concerned with finding that Mini Cooper,” he said. Its driver “absolutely” faces charges as a result of “engaging in racing that led to those deaths. There is definitely some culpability.”
Thompson said there were several witnesses to the incident, because traffic was fairly heavy at the time and numerous drivers saw what occurred.
Sugar Land police ask that anyone who witnessed the racing or the accident, or anyone with information about the Mini Cooper or its driver, contact the department’s Criminal Investigations Division at 281-275-2540.
