A child was killed when a driver steered around a barricade and his car was hit by a train near Elliot Reeder Road and Colony Court on Nov. 19, 2025, Fort Worth police said.
WFAA-TV
A man who drove past train crossing gates that were down, trying to beat a commuter train across tracks last year in Fort Worth and causing the death of his 5-year-old nephew in a collision, was on Thursday placed under a 10-year term of deferred adjudication probation.
The terms of the probation, which were negotiated by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and the defense, require that Fabian Riojas, throughout the next decade, turn himself into the custody of the Tarrant County sheriff before 9 p.m. on the Friday before Mother’s Day and spend Mother’s Day weekend in the Tarrant County Jail.
Riojas will also be required to spend the entirety of every Nov. 19, the date of the collision in which Emilio Martinez died, in the jail.
Riojas, 24, formally accepted the district attorney’s office offer on Thursday in the 371st District Court in Tarrant County before Judge Ryan Hill.
The punishment range for manslaughter, the offense on which Riojas is under indictment, is two to 20 years in prison.
Riojas was reckless when he drove into the path of the oncoming train, prosecutors argued.
The Trinity Railway Express train and Riojas’ car collided near Elliot Reeder Road and Colony Court in Fort Worth, near the city’s border with Haltom City, police said.
Riojas tried to pass an activated train barricade at the crossing, and the train collided with the car, police said.
Emilio, who was pronounced dead at the scene, died from blunt force injuries.
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Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.