Woman charged after fatal north Harris County crash kills passenger
A fatal late-night crash on Century Plaza Drive left Miguel Turrubiartes dead and sent Yury Ramirez-Chavez to jail on an intoxication manslaughter charge.
A north Harris County crash on Century Plaza Drive ended with one passenger dead, another hospitalized and a woman jailed on an intoxication manslaughter charge after deputies said her gray 2004 GMC Yukon was speeding and weaving through lanes before it struck a curb and spun out.
Harris County sheriff’s deputies said the wreck happened around 10:59 p.m. June 10 in the 600 block of Century Plaza Drive near Woodham Drive and North Briar Drive in the Greenspoint area. Investigators said Yury Ramirez-Chavez was driving eastbound at about 60 mph in a 35 mph zone when the SUV failed to stay in a single lane, entered a grassy median and crashed.
The force of the impact threw Miguel Turrubiartes from the vehicle, deputies said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies said Turrubiartes was not wearing a seat belt and identified him as Ramirez-Chavez’s common-law husband.
Ramirez-Chavez was arrested at the scene after deputies said she showed signs of intoxication. She was later hospitalized for unspecified injuries. No other vehicles were involved, and no other injuries were reported. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said its Vehicular Crimes Division is handling the investigation because the crash has a criminal nexus.
The case now moves into Harris County’s criminal system under Texas intoxication manslaughter law, which makes it a second-degree felony when a person operates a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated and, because of that intoxication, causes another person’s death by accident or mistake. Prosecutors will review the crash file, the alleged speed, the lane departures and the signs of intoxication as they determine the next court steps.
The wreck also places another hard spotlight on a corridor that residents use every day. Century Plaza Drive, near the Woodham Drive and North Briar Drive intersection, became a death scene in seconds, with deputies saying speed and intoxication turned a routine eastbound trip into a fatal crash. Public safety officials note that seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half, and the fatal ejection in this case underscores how quickly a collision can become deadly when a passenger is unrestrained.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
