SAN ANTONIO – A teen was heading home from work on his bicycle when he was hit and killed by a pickup truck on the South Side, according to San Antonio police.
The driver responsible, 66-year-old Daniel Martinez, was arrested Saturday for failure to stop and render aid-death, an affidavit states.
The charge stems from a crash that happened at 10:26 p.m., Saturday, May 6 in the 8500 block of IH-35 South and the 3000 block of Kiowa.
Police said 18-year-old Jacob Lopez was found dead at the crash scene, next to his bicycle.
There was also a plastic piece of a vehicle with the word “Ford” imprinted on it and three other broken pieces of clear plastic, but no vehicle was found when officers arrived.
Based on this evidence, police determined Lopez had been struck by a vehicle before it took off.
Lopez had left work on his bicycle prior to the crash and his commute was typically between 12-13 minutes, SAPD said.
His body was found less than a block away from his home, on his work route, according to police.
Authorities obtained surveillance footage from the 8600 block of IH-35 South northbound, across the highway from the crash.
The area is dark, but it did show Lopez riding his bicycle along the southbound frontage road when he was struck by a pickup truck from behind, an affidavit states.
The vehicle didn’t stop to help Lopez and the driver continued down the frontage road.
An anonymous caller helped lead SAPD to the driver.
According to an affidavit, the caller said she saw the news of the fatal crash and said the driver of a Ford F150 was drunk and crashed into a pole that same night.
She thought the crashes could’ve been related and she gave police the truck’s license plate number and the address of where it was located.
Police were able to track down the owner, identified as Martinez, at his home.
When officers found the truck, it had damage to the front driver’s side, the left front, the left bottom windshield and the left mirror, an affidavit said. There was also a black tire mark from a bicycle on the front left of the truck.
The plastic vehicle part found at the crash scene also appeared to be part of the left mirror, SAPD said.
Martinez was questioned by police and admitted to hitting a pole while exiting the highway at Somerset Road. He said he was heading home from a sports bar and “may have been intoxicated,” an affidavit states.
He told police he consumed around four or five beers before getting behind the wheel, SAPD said.
Initially, Martinez said he didn’t hit anything else besides the pole while driving home from the bar. However, police said his story was inconsistent with the damage that was found on the pickup truck.
Martinez claimed he didn’t know where the bicycle tire mark came from.
Eventually, he told police he knew he hit something at the crash scene but wasn’t sure what it was. Martinez said he didn’t stop to check because he was drunk, an affidavit said.
His truck was taken in by SAPD for evidence and he was taken into custody without incident.
According to Bexar County court records, Martinez remains in the Bexar County Jail. His bond is set at $100,000.