HOUSTON—A 25-year-old Houston man was charged with three counts of intoxication manslaughter late Monday in a crash that killed three teenage girls last week.

Prosecutors say Sajan Timalshina was drunk behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry when he ran a red light and smashed into a Ford Excursion on July 9.

The crash occurred around 1:30 a.m. as Timalshina was headed north on the Highway 59 feeder and the SUV, which was carrying two adults and five teenagers, was headed east on the Sam Houston Tollway feeder.

Two of the teen passengers – 13-year-old Avianca Cortez and 17-year-old Rashaunda Raleigh – were ejected from the SUV and died at the scene.

A third passenger, 13-year-old Detrihanna Davis, died the next day at the hospital. They were not wearing seatbelts, police said.

The other occupants of the car were taken to the hospital in serious condition and have since been released.

According to court documents, Timalshina failed field sobriety tests at the scene. When police asked for a voluntary blood sample, Timalshina refused, but officers were able to get an involuntary sample because the accident was fatal.

That sample was taken at Ben Taub about three and a half hours after the crash and registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.075, police said.

After performing a retrograde analysis of the sample, officers determined Timalshina’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident was between 0.127 and 0.162.

In Texas, a person whose blood-alcohol level is 0.08 or higher is legally intoxicated.

According to court documents, Timalshina gave a voluntary statement to officers after the crash, saying that he was driving his brother’s Camry, had worked a 16-hour day and was confused about where he was going because he was tired.

Timalshina told officers he’d seen a green light farther up the road and mistakenly thought it was the nearest signal when he ran the red light and hit the SUV.

In a second statement, Timalshina told police he’d had a 12 oz. Corona at his brother’s work just before 1 a.m., but he’d only consumed a fourth of the beer.

Police said a big-rig driver, who waiting at the red light at the time of the crash, saw the whole thing.

"When the light turned green, he noticed that the Toyota Camry traveling north was traveling at a high rate of speed and he felt that he wasn’t gonna stop so he stayed where he was at," said HPD Sgt. I. Izaguirre. "But the Ford Excursion didn’t see that car..."

One of the surviving girls, 14-year-old Necie Davis, described herself going in and out of consciousness after the crash.

"I felt the car hit the other car and then after that I just blanked out and when I kind of looked around and Avianca Cortez was laying on top of me and I was trying to see if she was still here," said Davis. "I was trying to get her up, but I couldn’t really move."

Davis, who was released from the hospital late Friday, said she and her friends were on their way home from a party when they were hit.

"We always went places with each other," said Davis. "I wish I could see them one last time at least. I didn’t get to tell them I love them or anything."

Timalshina's bond was set at $150,000

One more lesson to learn:

Never take your kids to midnight parties...

pire

Nepal has no strict law against DWI. As such it seems a little too harsh that one day you are driving a car and next day you are locked up in the cell for life.

But think about it this way. A moving vehicle, with speed of over 60 mph, is like a controlled bullet. If you aren’t careful with it you can take lives. As such strict licensing laws are in place. You aren’t suppose to operate this dangerous machine if you aren’t fit to do so. Driving while intoxicated is like shooting guns in a shooting range blind folded and dizzy; every now and then you can kill somebody.

If laws weren’t as strict you would see more such cases. Imagine you driving in the road, following the law, and a big SUV comes hurling-swerving and BAM!! Hits you and you paralyzed for the rest of your life without you fault. This could have been avoided, if the driver had not driven while drunk.

The fact is US law is NOT strict for DWI, it is just. Nepal should have similar law and a mere jarimana shouldn’t be enough. They should be prisoned and given stricter sentence like here in US.

Imagine you were the brother of those little girls who were killed for no fault of their own (give me a break, do you really wear a seatbelt everytime you are in the back seat? That’s not even a law).

You should be jailed just for saying those words.

pire, u should be insane to call this crime a petty crime. are u serious?? are u damn serious?? no wonder nepal will remain as it is. so what if the girls had not put on their seat belt..that don't give rights for the suspect to drink drive run the red light. i can understand u feel pity for the fellow nepalese, but still the victim's family should get justice.

newlynew: we two gotta talk to pire abt this issue, one on one. what more hurts is, this guy (pire) supposedly is well educated person and pursuing his career in united states.