A 36-year-old Big Sandy man died at the scene earlier today after he was struck by a BMW while walking against traffic on FM 1002 in Upshur County. Kenneth McCoy was walking southbound on the northbound side of the roadway, just south of FM 852, when he was hit around 2:52 a.m., according to a preliminary Texas Department of Public Safety report.
According to KLTV, McCoy died at the scene of the crash. Troopers later identified the driver as 30-year-old Lauren Martin of Big Sandy, who was heading northbound on FM 1002 at the time of the collision, according to CBS19. Martin was not injured, the station reports.
Why Walking Position Matters on Dark Rural Roads
DPS troopers reported that McCoy was walking on the northbound side of FM 1002 while heading southbound, meaning he was walking with his back to the oncoming vehicle that struck him rather than facing it, per the same account. That positioning put him directly in the path of Martin's BMW as it traveled north along the dark, rural stretch of highway near Big Sandy.
Texas law lays out specific rules for pedestrians on roads without sidewalks. Under Section 552.006(b) of the Texas Transportation Code, a pedestrian walking along a roadway or shoulder must walk on the left side facing oncoming traffic, unless that side is obstructed or unsafe, according to FindLaw. Violations of that pedestrian statute are classified as Class C misdemeanors, punishable by fines of up to $200, according to Ben Bronston & Associates.
The rule has some flexibility built in for pedestrians facing unsafe conditions. Texas House Bill 1277, which took effect in September 2023, updated state law to explicitly allow pedestrians to walk on roadways facing oncoming traffic whenever sidewalks are obstructed, damaged, or unsafe, the San Antonio Report notes. It remains unclear why McCoy was walking along FM 1002 at that hour, and whether any citations or charges will result from the ongoing DPS investigation.
A Statewide Pattern of Deadly Rural Crashes
The crash adds to a grim statewide toll. Texas Department of Transportation data shows that 772 pedestrians were killed and 1,455 more were seriously injured across 6,095 crashes in 2024, accounting for 19 percent of all roadway fatalities despite pedestrians representing just 1 percent of total traffic crashes statewide, per the Texas Department of Transportation. The agency lists pedestrians failing to yield right-of-way, drivers failing to yield right-of-way, driver inattention, and speeding as the top contributing factors in these crashes.
Rural highways like FM 1002 carry an outsized share of that risk. A June 2026 analysis of TxDOT crash data by Angel Reyes & Associates found that collisions on rural Texas roads are 2.7 times more likely to result in fatalities than those on urban city streets, nearly double the national rural-versus-urban lethality ratio, according to Morningstar. Darkness compounds that danger further: research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that U.S. pedestrian fatalities have climbed by more than 80 percent since 2009, with nearly the entire increase occurring after dark.
TxDOT's own safety guidance urges pedestrians traveling during early-morning or nighttime hours to wear reflective materials and carry a flashlight, in addition to walking on the left side of the road facing oncoming traffic whenever no sidewalk is available. The state agency's recommendations echo the same statutory positioning rule that troopers say McCoy was not following when he was struck before dawn on FM 1002. DPS has not indicated whether McCoy or Martin faced any impairment or distraction at the time of the crash, and the investigation into the collision remains active.
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