Emergency responders rushed to the intersection of State Highway 36 and Farm-to-Market Road 603 in Callahan County, Texas, shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. The rural crossroads near the small community of Eula became the site of a violent two-vehicle collision. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and local fire crews arrived to find a passenger car heavily damaged and an 18-wheeler with front-end destruction.
The passenger car, driven by 36-year-old Kaley Loren DeMasters of Abilene, had been traveling on FM 603 approaching the stop sign at Highway 36. Investigators determined DeMasters failed to yield the right of way, proceeding into the intersection directly into the path of the westbound semi-truck on the main highway. The larger vehicle T-boned the car on the driver’s side in this uncontrolled rural junction.
The impact crushed the car’s cabin and spun both vehicles off the roadway. DeMasters suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by responding medics. An 11-year-old student from Eula Independent School District, riding as a passenger in the car, sustained critical trauma and required immediate transport to a hospital.
Paramedics airlifted or ambulanced the young student to a trauma facility, likely Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene or a similar regional hospital. Despite urgent medical intervention en route and upon arrival, the child succumbed to injuries during transport or shortly after. The name remained withheld pending family notification in the small Eula ISD community.
The driver of the 18-wheeler reported only minor injuries and received on-site treatment without needing hospitalization. The truck carried a standard load, with no hazardous materials involved. Debris from the collision scattered across the intersection, requiring extended closure of Highway 36 while crews cleared the wreckage and documented the scene.
Texas Department of Public Safety continues reconstructing the crash at this known hazardous intersection of Highway 36 and FM 603. Preliminary findings point to the failure to stop at the sign on FM 603 as the primary factor in the Callahan County tragedy. The incident underscores risks at rural crossroads where high-speed highway traffic meets secondary roads near communities like Eula.