KILLEEN, Texas — “Elliana was happy she was a very happy person — she liked working at P. Terry's, she loved her job and she loved watching reality shows," said Connie Munos, local mother.
Connie Munos is one of two mothers who lost a child in a pedestrian crash on Elms Road in Killeen.
Elms is a very busy road with lots of open space in some areas, and traffic crossings and sidewalks in others.
Her daughter was diagnosed with mental illness at a young age, but at the age of 18, she decided to move out of the family home.
She was killed just two hours before mental health assistance could arrive.
“She packed all her belongings, you know, she was happy with her dog leash, I don’t know where she was thinking she was going to move to, but she left the house and she went on to Elms Road — Elms Road is a very dangerous place,” Munos said.
After finding out through a Facebook neighborhood group on that her daughter was hit, her mother dealt with her loss privately before finding the courage to speak out to the Killeen City Council to raise awareness about the dangers of the roadway.
According to TxDOT, there were 58 deaths, and 53 injuries in Bell County in 2023.
The city is working to keep both pedestrians and drivers in local neighborhoods safe — at first dealing with smaller issues, then moving to larger capital projects.
“You know we have to find funding for the major type of constructions to add sidewalks, improve kind of that corridor in the meantime we have reached out to concur to add some more streetlights and kind of improve that lightening along that corridor where there are some dark areas,” said Andrew Zagars, engineer with the City of Killeen.
But the repair work isn’t limited to repairs on Elms.
“We’re working on Gilmer which is under construction right now — we have bunny trail, which we are receiving bids hopefully next week, we have Stagecoach, we have Watercrest,” Zagars said.
