GALVESTON – A young couple from Crosby were celebrating Mardi Gras last Sunday morning, but it ended in a tragic accident in which their vehicle exploded.
Kendal Reed, 19, was driving a PT Cruiser that drifted across the opposite lanes of traffic before smashing into a concrete pole near 4600 Seawall Boulevard about 3 a.m. Witnesses and police tried to pull them from their S.U.V. but it burst into flames.
Sgt. Joshua Schirard of the Galveston Police Department indicated the response time was brief for police and said witnesses were able to pull Reed’s girlfriend from the passenger side of the crushed S.U.V. before flames erupted. Officers tried to free Reed from the driver’s seat by using crowbars and sledge hammers to remove the door as they fought flames with extinguishers. Sara Santana, 20, was taken to University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston but had “sustained massive trauma,” police said, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
The couple is survived by a 7 month old boy named Bentley.
Reed played football in junior high and at HISD’s Sterling High School.
Sergeant Schirard said it was unknown if alcohol played any role in the accident.