A married elderly couple in Texas passed away after their vehicle was struck during a street race. On July 17, William and Sandra Lazarus, both 77, were killed in a car crash when 51-year-old James Armont’s orange BMW collided into their silver Hyundai SUV. Armont was going 112 miles per hour moments before the accident.
Both street race drivers have been charged
The cause of the fatal crash in McKinney at the intersection of Custer Road and Bedford Drive was a street race, according to an arrest affidavit seen by FOX 4.
Dashboard camera video taken from Armont’s BMW, which recorded the minutes before the crash occurred, shows that he had challenged another driver, 22-year-old Braydon Moss, who was in a black Tesla while they were a red light on Custer Road.
Moss accelerated after the light turned green and Armont gave chase. He could be heard saying “Are you trying to race my racing slicks? Are you kidding me?” as he “maniacally” weaved through traffic, reaching speeds of up to 113 miles per hour.
At the intersection, Moss saw the Lazarus’ SUV and began braking, narrowly avoiding a collision. However, Armont’s BMW struck the vehicle at top speed, causing the SUV to come off the ground.
The elderly couple was pronounced dead at the scene, while first responders found Armont in the passenger seat of his vehicle. He had suffered a broken femur, a facial fracture, and a lacerated liver and spleen.
On July 21, Armont was arrested and charged with two counts of manslaughter. Four days later, Braydon Moss turned himself into police and was charged with two counts of racing on a highway resulting in injury or death.
An obituary states that William and Sandra married in 1970 in Florida. In their retirement in Texas, both volunteered at local schools and chose to remain active with the Allen Independent School Distract “based on their love of education.”
