Photo By Medina, Mariah/Courtesy photo By Mariah Medina, San Antonio Express-News : August 4, 2015
On Saturday, Stevie Ray Hergert had gone camping with friends when Texas Department of Public Safety officials said she lost control of an ATV she was driving.
Alcohol and speed were determined to be factors in a 16-year-old East Texas girl's fatal ATV wreck, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced Tuesday.
On Saturday, Stevie Ray Hergert had gone camping with friends about 50 miles east of Lufkin when officials said she lost control of an ATV she was driving at 3 a.m. and was ejected from the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of head trauma, according to TxDPS.
Two older boys riding in the ATV with Stevie Ray, Bryce Hoffpauir, 18, and Nicholas Fesmire, 19, sustained scratches TxDPS said Tuesday, leaving the Hergert family with questions about the accident.
"She never left the driveway without a seatbelt on," Carmell Hergert, Stevie Ray's mom, told the Daily News. "I'm not understanding of the situation because of how cautious she was."
"We have 160 beers I repeat 160," was the last tweet to come from the aspiring model's account, and the day before her trip, she tweeted: "Deer lease tomorrow, not to shoot no deer just to chug some beers amen."
While TxDPS initially stated the investigation was too premature to speculate the involvement of drugs or alcohol, the development now has DPS working to determine how the minors obtained the alcohol.
Her friends and family have mourned their loss on social media as the family of Stevie Ray has set up a GoFundMe account to cover funeral expenses in the sudden death of their relative.
Stevie Ray was expected to realize her dreams of becoming a model after she was invited to fly out to California for a modeling audition, the Daily News said.
"Stevie will never get to walk on that stage to graduate like she was suppose to this year. She will never get to put on a wedding dress and walk down the isle to the man of her dreams. She will never be able to experience motherhood," her GoFundMe page read. "Her life was taken from her so fast. You never know what you have until it's gone."