A 33-year-old woman was killed early Sunday morning when the off-road utility terrain vehicle she was riding in flipped on a residential street in Richwood, Texas, throwing her from the vehicle. Police say the driver, 38-year-old Sean Berkley, has since been arrested on suspicion of intoxication manslaughter as investigators await results from a court-ordered blood test.
According to FOX 26 Houston, Richwood police reported that the crash happened at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday on Bayou Bend Drive near FM 2004 and Oakwood Trail. Officials believe Berkley was behind the wheel of the UTV, which was carrying multiple people at the time. Police described the wreck as a single-vehicle rollover involving the off-road vehicle, and the woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Investigators suspect speed and alcohol played a role in the crash, though the case remains under investigation, per police. Officials performed a blood test on Berkley, and a warrant was reportedly served to collect the sample after the crash. Richwood police say they found probable cause to arrest Berkley for intoxication manslaughter, but officials are still waiting on the blood test results to come back before the case moves forward.
What Texas Law Requires Before an Arrest Like This
Getting to that point legally is not simple. Under Texas Transportation Code § 724.012 and the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 ruling in Missouri v. McNeely, officers investigating a fatal crash cannot draw blood from a suspect who refuses consent without first obtaining a judicial search warrant, according to FindLaw. That constitutional requirement is why the blood test results in Berkley's case are still pending rather than already public.
If those results and the broader investigation support the charge, Berkley would face a second-degree felony under Texas Penal Code § 49.08, which carries a punishment range of two to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, per FindLaw. Intoxication manslaughter charges in Texas do not require prosecutors to prove intent or recklessness — only that intoxication directly caused the fatal crash. Separately, drivers arrested on intoxication charges who undergo blood or breath testing also face an automatic Administrative License Revocation, a civil process that runs on its own track from the criminal case and requires the driver to request a hearing within 15 days to contest a license suspension, according to Deandra Grant Law.
Why UTVs on Public Roads Raise Red Flags
The vehicle involved was an off-road utility terrain vehicle, a category of machine not generally built for street driving. Texas Transportation Code Chapter 551A restricts UTVs from operating on public highways and city streets, allowing exceptions only on designated low-speed roads, inside master-planned communities, or for short, direct agricultural crossings, and only with an off-highway vehicle decal issued by Texas Parks and Wildlife, according to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. UTVs lack the crash protections built into standard passenger vehicles, a gap that becomes especially dangerous during rollovers like the one in Richwood.
National data underscores just how often that gap turns deadly. A U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission study of emergency department-treated off-highway vehicle injuries found the vehicle overturned in 66 percent of incidents and the victim was ejected in 70 percent of cases. Off-highway vehicle incidents killed 2,448 people nationwide between 2018 and 2020, averaging more than 800 deaths a year, per the commission's May 2024 report. Separate research analyzing federal crash records found that on-road recreational off-highway vehicle fatal crashes climbed from zero in 2000 to 37 by 2015, with alcohol involved in 57 percent of those fatal crashes and at least 46 percent involving occupants who were not belted in, according to a study published on ResearchGate.
Alcohol-related crashes remain a persistent problem well beyond off-road vehicles. Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes killed 1,053 people across Texas in 2024, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Statewide, a reportable traffic crash occurred every 57 seconds that year, contributing to 4,150 total fatalities and 251,977 injuries across Texas roadways.
Richwood is a small municipality of roughly 4.5 square miles in south-central Brazoria County, with an estimated population of 4,783 as of 2026, situated near State Highway 288 and FM 2004 in the Brazosport area alongside Lake Jackson and Clute. The FM 2004 corridor has drawn Hoodline's attention before: a fatal shooting after a midnight stop occurred along the same stretch in June. As of Sunday, the identity of the woman killed had not been released, and it remains unknown whether she or the other UTV occupants were wearing helmets or restraints at the time of the crash. The investigation is ongoing, and no additional charges have been announced.
