TEXAS CITY,TX : Two dead identified in crash linked to Texas City commissioner on July, Monday 3rd 2017

A Texas City commissioner was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter after two men were struck by a truck and killed early Monday morning on the Galveston causeway.

Police were called about 1:05 a.m. to a scene on the northbound Interstate 45 just north of the entrance ramp of the causeway off Harborside Drive, where two men had been struck by a Ford F-150 pickup, Galveston Police Department Capt. Joshua Schirard said.

The two men were believed to have been attempting to secure items in the back of their Toyota Tacoma on the right shoulder of the causeway at the time they were hit, Schirard said. The truck swerved into the shoulder and struck the men who were on the driver’s side of the Tacoma, police said.

The men were already dead when fire and police authorities arrived, Schirard said.

The men killed were father and son, identified as Hong Phuc Le, 33, and Duoc Van Le, 58, of Rosharon, police said.

At the scene, the driver was showing signs of intoxication and was taken by a Department of Public Safety trooper to John Sealy Hospital in Galveston for a mandatory blood draw, Schirard said.

Dee Ann Haney, 54, was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter, Schirard said. Haney admitted to smoking marijuana to the state trooper, according to the arrest affidavit.

Toxicology reports indicating drug or alcohol levels in the blood will not be released for several months, said Assistant District Attorney Kayla Allen, the prosecutor assigned to the case.

Authorities could not say conclusively whether alcohol was involved, Allen said.

Haney posted bond and was released from the Galveston County jail about noon Monday, according to jail officials. She did not comment to reporters waiting outside the jail.

Her bond was set at $100,000, Schirard said.

Haney, who works as a laboratory safety and training coordinator at Texas A&M University at Galveston, has served as an at-large commissioner in Texas City for more than a decade. The university has put Haney on paid suspension while the investigation is ongoing, said Amy Smith, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University.

“Our deepest condolences go to the families of those who lost their lives,” Smith said in a written statement.

Haney was first elected to the Texas City Commission in 2004 and most recently ran unopposed for her citywide position in the May 2016 election.

She serves on numerous boards, including the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the Galveston County Transit District, Galveston County Animal Advisory Services and the city’s boards for zoning and adjustments and standards.

She is the vice president of the Galveston County Mayors and Council Members Association, according to her LinkedIn page.

Haney has worked in industrial safety for more than 25 years. Her father, D.D. Haney, is a former Texas City commissioner and mayor of Texas City from 1989 to 1990.

Intoxication manslaughter carries a possible prison sentence of two to 20 years and a fine of up to $10,000.

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Two dead identified in crash linked to Texas City commissioner