Fatal Accident for Local Business Owner from Kingwood 😥 Cleveland Comfort Suites Hotel owner, David Kumar and his wife have been there for the community for many years. Many have seen his two sons, nineteen-year-old Neal and fourteen-year-old Ravi grow up over those years. Saturday night they left their hotel business in their Toyota Camry for their Kingwood home. As they got on the I-69 at SH-105 David realized the traffic was at a dead stop due to a car fire at the San Jacinto River bridge several miles ahead. There was nowhere to exit. I-69 through much of Liberty County has been under construction for over two-years as TXDOT brings the two-lane highway up to Interstate highway standards. This includes the widening to six-lanes, feeder roads, overpasses on crossroads, and an elevated bridge over the flood-prone East Fork of the San Jacinto River. Due to this construction, the two lanes with little or no shoulder is bordered by concrete walls. Any time a motor vehicle incident occurs two things happen, first traffic has nowhere to go and it turns into a parking lot. Second, it is almost impossible for first responders to get to a scene and then even worse getting a wrecker to the scene. This was the case Saturday night. As David and his family sat in line waiting in traffic with hundreds of other vehicles. It was then that 28-year-old Cory Messer of Spring was traveling southbound on I-69 in a Dodge 2500 Commercial van owned by Gulf Coast Fiber Services slammed into Kumars Toyota at highway speed. The van then clipped a Chevrolet Tahoe damaging the right rear of the Tahoe. As the Toyota rotated from the collision it clipped the rear of a Chevrolet pickup. Neal and Ravi Kumar, the two teens were in the back seat of the Toyota. Neal was killed instantly. Cleveland firefighters were able to get Ravi out of the vehicle and start CPR. Life Flight was en route, however, with Life Flight minutes out the EMS crew of Allegiance EMS made a decision to transport Ravi to HCA Hospital in Cleveland. He was pronounced deceased shortly after they arrived at HCA. David Kumar and his wife were released from the hospital just after midnight with non-life-threatening injuries. Messer, the driver of the striking van was not injured but was transported to the hospital for a mandatory blood draw. The driver of the Tahoe and the occupants of the Chevrolet pickup were not injured. I-69 was closed until after 10 pm as Cleveland Police investigated the crash. 4951