Joseph Nathaniel Caraballo had severe autism and had a history of running away from school
NEED TO KNOW
- A 14-year-old boy with autism is dead after he ran away from school and ran onto a Texas highway on Sept. 23
- Now, the teen’s grieving family is demanding answers
- The El Paso Independent School District said that a third-party investigator is reviewing the incident
A 14-year-old boy with autism is dead after he ran away from his high school and ran onto a busy Texas highway, where an SUV fatally struck him. Now, his grieving family is looking for answers.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, around 4:50 p.m. local time, police responded to reports of a pedestrian and vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 54 near mile marker 24 in El Paso, police said in a news release.
The agency’s special traffic investigations unit began an investigation, which revealed that the victim, Joseph Nathaniel Caraballo, was seen running west across the northbound lanes of the highway, crossing the center barrier, and proceeding to run north along the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 54. At that time, the 14-year-old boy ran into the path of a 2024 Toyota 4Runner as it traveled south…