Teen who went over bridge was changing
By ANDREW CHAVEZ
achavez@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — The grandfather of a 16-year-old Fort Worth boy who died when his car went off a freeway bridge early Saturday morning said his grandson had been in some trouble recently but was turning himself around.
“He had gotten in some trouble, but he was through with all of that,” said Ken Hornbeck, Jeffrey Bayliff’s grandfather. “His girlfriend said before he left that he was just going to do his thing and do what’s right.”
Bayliff, 16, a student at Fort Worth Can! Academy, was driving home from his girlfriend’s residence in North Richland Hills, his grandfather said, when he drove off a bridge at the Interstate 35W and Interstate 20 interchange and landed on eastbound I-20.
Police received a call about the accident about 4 a.m. Saturday morning and Bayliff was pronounced dead about three hours later at John Peter Smith Hospital.
Initial reports indicated Bayliff was driving west on Interstate 20 to southbound Interstate 35W, said Sgt. Rodney Bangs, the supervisor of the traffic investigation unit.
But Hornbeck said a witness told him his grandson was driving south on Interstate 35W and headed to eastbound Interstate 20.
Bangs said Bayliff was ejected from the car after it struck the ground, meaning he likely was not wearing a seat belt. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office determined that Bayliff died due to blunt force trauma as a result of the ejection.
Officers haven’t determined whether speed was a factor in the accident because they haven’t yet determined which ramp he drove off.
“If he actually went over the guard rail he would’ve in all likelihood been traveling too fast,” Bangs said.
Hornbeck said the medical examiner’s office determined drugs or alcohol were not a factor.
Funeral arrangements: 10 a.m. Wednesday, Moore Funeral Home, Arlington.
Andrew Chavez, 817-390-7359
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