2 Dead, Driver Injured in Texas Taxi Crash

A Houston taxi driver has been charged with criminally negligent homicide after two passengers died when his van slammed into a disabled tanker truck.

Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva says 56-year-old David Wayne Houston has been charged with criminally negligent homicide. He’s booked into the Harris County Jail with bond set at $100,000.

Houston is free on bond. A person answering his home telephone hung up when Houston was asked for.

The crash happened about 5 p.m. Friday on U.S. 59, just north of downtown Houston. Witnesses told police that the taxi van was swerving in and out of traffic when it slammed into the truck parked on the freeway shoulder. Fifty-six-year-old Sandra Smart and 84-year-old Dorothy Britton were killed.

The women were wearing seat belts.