Anderson, S.C. - On Monday evening, April 13, 2026, a 1-year-old boy named Christopher Rodrigo Perez Tapia was struck and killed by a truck near El Latino Bar & Grill on South Murray Avenue in Anderson, South Carolina. The initial call came in around 8:15 p.m., and by 9:10 p.m., the Anderson County Coroner's Office had confirmed the toddler's death.
He was one year old. His life had barely begun.
David Ronald Metz, 62, of Anderson, was charged with felony DUI involving death. The Anderson Police Department is leading the investigation with assistance from the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Two Days. Three Children. The Same Preventable Cause.
What makes this tragedy even more staggering is the context in which it occurred. Only two days before this accident, in nearby Spartanburg county, two children were hit and killed in another DUI crash; Dereon Robins, 12, and Mikhail-Lee Smith, 9, struck on a sidewalk while riding bicycles. Three children dead in two days across Upstate South Carolina, all connected to the same cause: an impaired driver behind the wheel of a vehicle.
These are not statistics. They are children with names, with families, with futures that were taken from them by decisions made before anyone got in a car.
What Happened on South Murray Avenue
South Murray Avenue is an active corridor in Anderson; it’s the kind of street where people gather and where families go out for the evening. The crash occurred near El Latino Bar & Grill in the 1500 block of South Murray Avenue. A toddler was present. A truck driven by a 62-year-old man struck him.
The details of how a one-year-old came to be in the path of that vehicle, whether he was in a parking lot, near the sidewalk, or in the care of someone nearby, remain part of an active investigation. Those facts matter deeply, both for understanding what happened and for determining the full scope of legal accountability.
The Law and What It Offers Families in the Aftermath
South Carolina's criminal justice system will pursue felony DUI charges against David Ronald Metz. A felony DUI involving death is among the most serious charges an impaired driver can face in this state, and if convicted, Metz faces significant prison time. That accountability is necessary and appropriate.
But criminal proceedings serve the state. They do not serve the family of this child.
Civil law in South Carolina gives surviving family members the right to pursue a wrongful death claim, a separate legal action that addresses the losses a family sustains when a loved one is killed due to someone else's negligence. The damages available in a wrongful death case can include funeral and burial costs, medical expenses incurred before death, loss of companionship, and the emotional devastation that no dollar amount can truly measure but that the law nonetheless recognizes.
In a case like this one, where criminal charges have already been filed and the driver has been identified, the foundation for civil liability is significant. But the strength of a civil case depends on how thoroughly it is investigated and how completely a family's losses are documented and presented. An experienced personal injury attorney can examine the full picture: the driver's condition that evening, the circumstances of the crash, available insurance coverage, and every element of what this family has endured and will continue to face.
The Broader Question Our Roads Are Forcing Us to Ask
Two DUI crashes. Three dead children. Two consecutive days. At some point, these incidents demand more than grief, they demand examination.
South Carolina consistently ranks among the most dangerous states in the country for traffic fatalities. Impaired driving is a leading contributor. And while law enforcement, advocacy groups, and legislators work to address the problem through enforcement and policy, the crashes keep happening. They happen on sidewalks. They happen in parking lots. They happen outside restaurants on an ordinary Monday night.
The families left behind by these crashes are not abstractions. They are parents and siblings and grandparents who went to bed one night with a child in their home and woke up the next morning without one. They deserve every legal resource available to them, and they deserve to know that the law provides meaningful options even in the face of unimaginable loss.
Pracht Injury Lawyers: Committed to Safer Roads and Informed Communities
At Pracht Injury Lawyers, we share these stories because we believe an informed community is a safer one. When people understand how these crashes happen, what the law allows, and what families go through in the aftermath, it changes the conversation; about drunk driving, about accountability, and about what we owe each other on the roads we all share. The death of a one-year-old boy on a Monday night in Anderson, South Carolina, should not be reduced to a news headline that fades by the end of the week. We are committed to making sure it isn't, and to fighting for every family that finds themselves facing the unthinkable.
Details sourced from reporting by FOX Carolina and WYFF News 4.
By Pilar Fernandez-Pelayo