This article was originally published in The Examiner on Oct. 6, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 12:14 p.m., the Port Arthur police and fire departments received a 911 call reporting a major accident at 39th Street and Memorial Boulevard.
Officers responding to the scene “found one vehicle engulfed in flames,” a Port Arthur Police Deparment release said. After the fire was extinguished, responders discovered one occupant inside the charred vehicle.
Justice of the Peace Mark Derouen later pronounced the driver of the vehicle that caught fire dead at the scene. The driver was identified Sept. 28 as Mauricio Cordoba-Gomez, a 69-year-old Port Arthur resident.
A second vehicle also caught fire, according to Deputy Fire Chief Robert Havens. North and southbound traffic were diverted while the accident was being cleaned up.
Further investigation revealed that all vehicles involved had been traveling southbound on Memorial. Three vehicles were stopped for a red light when a fourth vehicle rear-ended them, according to reports from witnesses. A white Jeep at the back of the line caught fire upon impact.
The driver of the Jeep, Sour Lake Resident Joseph Brady Carney, 30, was arrested and booked into Jefferson County Jail on the same day. Carney is accused of criminally negligent homicide, a felony offense, in the death of Gomez. Bond was set at $30,000.
Two other occupants in the stopped vehicles were transported to local hospitals. Their injuries are non life-threatening, officials said.
The Accident Reconstruction Team and the Criminal Investigations Division of the Port Arthur Police Depart- ment are continuing to investigate the incident.
Eleanor Skelton 