DPS investigating fatal motorcycle accidents in county

The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating a pair of motorcycle accidents that have claimed the lives of two men within the past two weeks in Gonzales County.

Details about the accidents are scant as the official accident reports have not been filed yet within the Texas Department of Transportation Crash Records Information System (C.R.I.S.).

Texas Transportation Code Sec. 550.062 requires any law enforcement officer, who in the regular course of duty, investigates a motor vehicle crash that results in injury to or the death of a person or damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more, to submit a written report of that crash to TxDOT not later than the 10th day after the date of the crash. It can take up to four days for a report to show up in the C.R.I.S. system.

The families of both men have already been notified about their passing and benefits have been set up in their memories.

On Friday, March 7, Marcus Hernandez was killed in an evening motorcycle accident on a portion of Farm-to-Market Road 794 known to local residents as “The Curve.” Hernandez was a member of the band Backwater Buda Land, which performed at the 2021 Come and Take It Celebration. Hernandez also was a member of the Twisted Guardians MC. A benefit is scheduled for his family on Sunday, March 16, in front of Fresh Catch Co., 828 Saint Paul St.

The previous Friday, Feb. 28, Russell “Rusty” Bowles, 58, of Seguin, was killed in a motorcycle crash with a commercial vehicle on Texas 80. Bowles, a retired military veteran who served as a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, also was a member of the Chariots of Light Christian Bikers Ministries. His family is requesting that donations be made to https;//chariotsoflight.com/giving.