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DPS: School bus driver could not avoid fatal accident
By PEGGY O'HARE
Sept. 8, 2009, 10:25PM

A Willis High School student killed last week when a school bus ran over him after he fell from a moving pickup had been fighting with students in another vehicle just before his fatal fall, a state trooper said Tuesday.

Alex Caballero, 17, died Friday after the accident on Texas 75, minutes after school let out for the holiday weekend, said Department of Public Safety Trooper Cody Cullar. Caballero's younger brother was riding on the bus at the time and saw the aftermath of the accident, Cullar said.

The young man at the wheel of the pickup that Caballero fell out of drove away, but later returned with Caballero's parents, authorities said. Jose Juan Sanchez, 18, of Willis, was arrested for failure to stop and render aid involving a death, a third-degree felony, Cullar said.

Sanchez had no Texas driver's license and is in the country illegally, Cullar said.

The Willis Independent School District bus driver, Pamela Rowell of Willis, had no chance to avoid hitting Caballero, Cullar said.

Caballero had missed his bus ride home and approached Sanchez after school and asked for a lift, Cullar said.

Sanchez had argued earlier in the day with another student at the school, and that fight resumed as he and Caballero drove away, Cullar said.

A mirror hurled by someone in another vehicle struck Caballero, who was in the passenger seat, Cullar said. Caballero then threw the mirror back, striking the other vehicle, the trooper said.

As Sanchez was accelerating out of the parking lot, he heard his truck's passenger door open and saw Caballero fall out, Cullar said. The teen landed in the northbound lane of Texas 75 just before the bus ran over him, Cullar said.

“I don't believe any charges would have been filed if he would have stopped,â€