Texas Wesleyan ex-football player hit by car, thrown off I-30 bridge while helping driver
Texas Wesleyan former defensive lineman Charles Trammell died Saturday when he was hit by a car while helping stranded students change a tire and thrown off an interstate bridge.
Fort Worth police said Trammell was struck by another vehicle on the Highway 287 ramp to Interstate 30 westbound near downtown. The impact caused him to fall off the bridge, which is 60 feet high.
Trammell was on the bridge around 9:20 p.m. with two stopped vehicles. Police suspect the driver was intoxicated.
Miguel Angel Lopez, 28, of Fort Worth, has been charged with intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle and accident involving a death, according to Tarrant County Jail records. He’s being held on $80,000 bond, $40,000 for each charge.
Trammell, a graduate of O’Connor High School in San Antonio, joined the football team in 2019, according to the university. Online records list his age as 20.
The team announced his death on Twitter.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Charles Trammell,” the team tweeted Monday. “Our hearts go out to his family, teammates, and friends at such a difficult time. We will miss Charles greatly.”
Trammell wrote in an essay on the sports recruiting site NCSAsports.org that he was raised by his parents to be a leader. His mother would ask him, for as long as he remembered, what he was.
“Mom, I’m a leader!” he would respond, he wrote in the 2019 post.
He said leaders always go first, lead by example and don’t focus their leadership in one area. He wrote that he wanted to be a leader not just in sports, but also in his personal life. He recalled living by his Christian morals, no matter what other people thought, and also how he won six youth league championships with four different teams.
He wanted to play football at college, he wrote, but he also wanted to find out what other areas he was passionate about academically.
The university said in a statement sent to students and employees that Trammell’s family described him as a man who was happy to be a friend that other people could count on. He would drop everything to help someone in need.
Joe Prud’homme, head coach of the Texas Wesleyan football team, said the team plans to honor Trammell by wearing his number on their helmets this season.
“Words cannot express the grief that flowed across this campus and throughout our athletic community when we heard the news that one of our own, Charles Trammell, had passed away,” Joe Prud’homme said in a written statement.
“Charles was a very selfless young man who always put others ahead of himself. He was a fun-loving and happy person who lit up every room he entered and had a gift of making those around him feel at ease and at home. He will leave behind a legacy of kindness, service and making Texas Wesleyan a better place by how he lived his life on Earth.”
The university will be holding a memorial Wednesday, which would have been Trammell’s 21st birthday, at 7 p.m. at the Martin University Center. The gathering will begin in Andrews Hall and move to the Kay Granger Mall, according to the university.
University President Frederick G. Slabach said in a written statement that Trammell will be missed by his classmates, friends and professors and that the university is committed to supporting the school community.
The university is offering counseling services to students who need them. Students can call 817-531-4859 for more information. Students can also seek virtual counseling through TimelyCare or contact Chaplain Gladys Childs at 817-531-4296.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 4:29 PM.