Driver faces manslaughter charge after high-speed Oak Cliff crash that killed man on lawn mower

A motorist has been arrested on a manslaughter charge after police say his high-speed crash led to the death of a man mowing a lawn.

Luis Saulo Ronzon Ramirez, 22, was booked into the Dallas County jail Thursday and remained in custody Monday, with bail set at $50,000. He did not have an attorney listed in court records.

The crash occurred about 3:45 p.m. July 19 in the 1100 block of West Jefferson Boulevard in north Oak Cliff.

Police wrote in an arrest-warrant affidavit that Ronzon was speeding west on Jefferson in a blue Honda Civic and ran a red light at South Polk Street, just before the road begins to curve to the right.

Two blocks away, a 69-year-old man driving a black Ford F150 north on South Winnetka Avenue had started to cross Jefferson after stopping at a stop sign. But he had no way of anticipating that the Honda was approaching him so quickly, police said.

Ronzon’s Honda hit the pickup and went off the road, spinning and flipping several times.

Police said data from the car showed it was going 76 mph just before impact; the speed limit on that stretch of road is 30.

The sedan then struck Armando Leija Esparza, who was cutting grass near the road. His riding lawn mower was knocked aside by the car and caught fire, the affidavit says.

Leija, 48, was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Ronzon later told detectives that he remembered his car flipping three or four times, according to the affidavit.

Dallas City Council member Chad West, whose district includes the site of the crash, wrote on Facebook that the fatal accident “should never have happened.”

West wrote that a task force has been discussing ways to prevent speeding along Jefferson Boulevard, and that he hopes to test lane closures in the area beginning in mid-August.

A GoFundMe account set up for Leija’s family has raised more than $30,000.