White Settlement Teen Dead After Truck Crashes Into Home

A teenage girl was killed Sunday evening after a pickup truck with a trailer crashed into her family home, said White Settlement Police

Investigators said the crash occurred in the 9300 block of Jason Court around 6:15 p.m. after the driver of a pickup truck with a trailer attached headed southbound on Dale Ln., lost control, plowed through a neighbor's fence and trees, then across the street into the home.

The driver Donald Gruber, 63, was arrested for intoxication manslaughter and assault.

"It's evident there was speed involved in this collision and if the facts bare out, this person should have never been behind the wheel," Chris Cook, White Settlement Police Chief, said. "This is a preventable crime, should not have happened at all and we'll hold the person responsible accountable.

Police said Gruber lived two streets over from where the crash happened and has three prior convictions for Driving While Intoxicated. Records show he was convicted in the 80s and 90s for two DWIs in Florida and one in Georgia.

Inside the home was a family of three, including 18-year-old Katey June Kirkland, who was found underneath the vehicle when first responders arrived, White Settlement PD said.

"I'm kind of shaken up a little bit, last night it didn't hit me, until this morning," said David Sosa, a good Samaritan who was driving by with his wife and saw the aftermath of the crash. He went inside the home to help.

“There was hardly any room because the truck was in there, the trailer was in there, there were some walls broken into the other side of the house. I made my way in there I saw the passenger was a lady and she looked fine, she was responding," explained Sosa. “I started looking around and I heard some noise on the other side of the truck so I had to move some sheetrock, a whole bunch of stuff so I could climb over to the other side the driver and some other guy, at that time I didn’t know it was the driver and the homeowner and we helped him get out of there, but he wasn’t responding.”

The girl's father was taken to the hospital in critical condition with a head injury.

"I kept holding him and since he had a whole bunch of blood he kept slipping through my hands and finally the cops showed up and got him out of there," said Sosa, who returned to the home on Monday to drop off flowers.

The teen's mother was also inside but had minor injuries.

"She was very panicked and couldn’t believe what was happening and was like, ‘What's happening, what’s happening?' over, and over," described Sosa.

The mother is a teacher at Saginaw High School, where her daughter also attended.

According to the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District, Kirkland was going into her senior year at Saginaw High School. Her mom is a teacher at Saginaw High School, and her dad teaches at the sister school, Boswell High School.

The school district said in a statement that crisis counselors for staff will be on-site tomorrow and that support for students will also be available once classes start Aug. 15.

Crisis counselors have already begun providing support to the family, and they are available to provide care and support for staff members who are on campus for professional development this week, the school district said.

"I knew her fairly well, I talked to her a few times in just passing, she didn't go outside a ton, but she was nice every time I talked to her," said Jordan Lancaster, a neighbor who lives across the street and is the same age.

"My grandmother said it sounded like a plane crash and so did another neighbor it was really loud a bunch of commotion," explained Lancaster who had left minutes before the crash happened and returned to find the destruction across the street. "It's sad to see what a drunk driver can do I wish it didn't happen."

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