Houston crash: Man on first date killed in Montrose, woman driver accused of drunk driving
Man killed while on first date after run over by suspected drunk driver
The two weren't even supposed to go on their first date until later in the week but on Tuesday, the man suddenly invited his date to karaoke on Westheimer. However, the date ended with the accused drunk driver going onto the sidewalk, killing him.
HOUSTON - The woman accused of running over and killing a man while he was on his first date is now under arrest and charged. She's identified as 32-year-old Kristina Rose Chambers. The fatal, early morning crash happened on Westheimer in Montrose.
It was Briana Iturrino's date with the man she only knows as Joe, whom she calls a good guy taken too soon. "To have even one kindred spirit removed, even if it was someone whose last name I didn't know yet, the world's darker for it," she says.
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The crash was reported around 2:25 a.m. Wednesday in the 1200 block of Westheimer Road.
Police say the man had just come out of Voodoo Doughnut and was walking down the sidewalk with his date when he was struck.
The two weren't even supposed to go out Tuesday night, but he suddenly invited her to karaoke on Westheimer. The date devastatingly ended with an accused drunk driver driving onto the sidewalk, killing him. "I'm just in shock that he's gone, that I was there and saw it happened," Iturrino adds, and she narrowly missed being hit herself.
The tragic crash that took her date's life happened just before 2:30 a.m. when she saw a Porsche Carrera speeding straight at them. "Even before I could act on it I felt something hot graze against my hip," Iturrino explains.
Iturrino and her date Joe met online. The two were set to go to a concert and meet for the first time on Friday, but Tuesday "he remembered that I like to sing, and he said he wanted to hear me. So he was like you want to go out for karaoke?"
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On their first date, she says he smiled a lot, was bubbly, and talked lovingly about his family and about being a proud uncle. "He was really easy to talk to. He was funny. He had really good taste in music," Iturrino says.
The deadly crash happened just after they left karaoke on Westheimer near Waughcrest Drive. The taco truck in the parking lot was closed, so they walked to get donuts and on their way back, right there on the sidewalk, Iturrino says the unthinkable happened.
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"Where that curve is if you don't turn you're going to go up on the sidewalk and the car wasn't going to make the turn. It was going too fast. I knew it wasn't going to make the turn, and then it was coming at us, and Joe was gone. It's very traumatizing," she said.
Detectives say 32-year-old Kristina Rose Chambers was driving drunk and hit Joe, killing him. Her car continued on the sidewalk, through a parking lot then the Porsche smashed into a pole. Joe was just 33-years-old.
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"Joe wasn't doing anything wrong. He wasn't speeding. He wasn't drinking, but he doesn't get to have a 34th birthday. She might go to jail for what she's done, but she gets to get to 34 and 35," says Iturrino.
Investigators say Chambers and her two passengers were taken to the hospital where she was placed under arrest. Chambers is charged with felony Intoxication Manslaughter.
Two other people were in the car and were taken to the hospital and are expected to survive their injuries.