Three-year-old Braylen Square has started eating again and asking nurses for specific foods, a small but meaningful milestone in his recovery from a crash that killed his father on a Baton Rouge street nearly a month ago. The boy is now undergoing speech and occupational therapy for several hours a day at a children’s hospital in New Orleans, according to his mother, Tequila Thomas.
A Week Into Rehab, Small Signs of Progress
Thomas told Unfiltered with Kiran that Braylen had been at the Children’s Hospital in New Orleans for about a week at the time of her interview, following his transfer there from Baton Rouge on November 5. She said her son had finally started eating and even requesting specific things from the nurses to eat, a shift from the critical condition she described him being in during the first couple of weeks after the crash.
Braylen began opening his eyes on October 30, according to the same account, and he does not yet know that his father died in the crash that injured them both. He still asks for his father, Thomas said. Her concerns now center on what recovery will ultimately look like for her son. “Will he be, you know, will he go back to the way he was, or would he have a speech delay?” she said, per the outlet’s report.
Midnight Crash Left Father Dead, Son Critically Hurt
The crash happened around midnight on October 18 in the 900 block of Blount Road in Baton Rouge, where Braylen’s father, Brandon Dewaunn Square, was walking with his son when a vehicle struck them both. Baton Rouge police said Square was walking in the eastbound lane of Blount Road when a 2014 Honda Pilot traveling westbound hit him and the boy; Square died at the scene, and Braylen was rushed to Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge before later being moved to New Orleans for specialized rehabilitation.
Thomas said Braylen suffered two broken shoulders, broken ankles, a broken leg, broken ribs, and a broken or fractured neck, along with brain swelling, according to the report. Square’s age has been reported differently by local outlets: family members told WBRZ he was 40, while The Advocate reported he was 44. Baton Rouge police are continuing to investigate the fatal crash and are asking any witnesses to call Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-STOP with information.
Juggling a Hospital Room and a House Full of Kids
Before securing a vehicle, Thomas relied on rideshare trips to get back and forth to the hospital, and she said she is grateful she was able to get a car with help from contributions to the family’s GoFundMe just before Braylen’s transfer to New Orleans. She currently receives one meal voucher a day while staying near her son in New Orleans, and she hopes to find a way to travel between the two cities so she can also see her other children.
Thomas said her 20-year-old child has had to take on most of the responsibility of caring for the younger kids while she stays with Braylen, and she worries her other children may feel she cares only about her injured son. It is a strain playing out against a broader pattern of pedestrian danger in the parish where her family was walking that night.
A Dangerous Stretch in a Dangerous Parish
According to The Advocate, 23 pedestrians and four bicyclists died in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2025, the second-highest total of any parish in the state, and 55 pedestrians were seriously injured there compared with 80 in Orleans Parish. A Smart Growth America study cited by the same outlet ranked the Baton Rouge metro area fifth nationally for pedestrian fatalities, with an average rate of 4.18 deaths per 100,000 people and 183 pedestrian deaths recorded from 2020 through 2024.
Neighbors told WBRZ that speeding drivers are especially dangerous along that stretch of Blount Road because of the near-total absence of nighttime lighting. Community activist Patt LeDuff told the station that many of the hundreds of lights installed along Scenic Highway the previous year have already burned out. After two pedestrians were killed on Nicholson Drive, the state lowered the speed limit on a section of that road from 45 to 35 mph, and after four people were struck in a single 24-hour stretch, Governor Jeff Landry along with officials from the Department of Transportation and Development, LSU, and the city-parish said they would discuss safety plans and infrastructure updates for the corridor, per WBRZ.
