Entire school district mourns Tatum senior
RUSK COUNTY, TX (KLTV) -
An entire school district is mourning tonight after one of their own high school seniors died in a tragic car wreck this weekend. It happened around 10:30 Saturday night on County Road 2142, just 5 miles west of Tatum.
"He always walked up to me at a ball game or anywhere I was at and shook my hand and said hello with a big smile on his face," Tatum Superintendent J.P. Richardson says.
18-year-old Hector Duran was just two months from graduating.
“It’s not anything you can just wake up the next morning and be okay with,” Richardson says. Saturday night, the pickup truck Duran was driving ran off the road and hit a line of trees.
A Texas state troopers report says Duran, who was not wearing his seat belt, died at the scene.
And within hours of the wreck, an out pour of love and prayers for the Duran family was shared on social media and throughout the community.
“We have a lot of faculty and staff that were very close to hector, the Duran’s are a big family in our community, so we are very close to them,” Richardson says.
Angel wings were edited onto photos of Hector; with one picture that’s been shared hundreds of times.
“We have counselors that were in place this morning, and then we are offering, any times our kids or faculty or staff need a break or want to come down to the office and talk and visit, they can,” Richardson says.
Hector Duran’s family has created a Facebook fundraiser page to help with Hector’s funeral expenses. If you would like to donate, go to www.facebook.com/donate/259644801631208/2335212026502701/
From the Texas Department of Public Safety:
On March 02, 2019 at approximately 10:37 PM, Troopers responded to a one vehicle fatal crash on CR-2142, five miles west of the city of Tatum in Rusk County. Preliminary crash investigation revealed that the driver of a 2006 Ford F-150, Hector Eduardo Duran, 18, of Tatum was traveling north on CR-2142 at a high rate of speed when the vehicle ran off the roadway to the left and struck multiple trees. The unrestrained driver was ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced at the scene by Judge Pat McCrory. Duran was taken to Crawford A. Crim Funeral Home in Henderson. The crash remains under investigation.
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