Bertram man killed in accident Saturday

By Glynis Crawford Smith

Burnet Bulletin

Funeral services will be held today, Thursday, Feb. 15 for a young Burnet man killed in a freak accident at his home.

Justin Battles, 26, a graduate of Burnet High School, died at his home Saturday night, Feb. 10, in an accident that left him pinned between his truck and a wall of home in Bertram.

“He had a little fire pit and he liked to cook out there,” said Bertram police chief J.J. Wilson. “He had music playing in his truck and the theory is that he must have reached in to turn the music off and knocked the standard shift into gear.

“He only had a second to respond to try to get it back out of gear when it began to move forward in first gear and pinned him against the house.”

Wilson said a neighbor to Battles' home in the 900 block of Ranch to Market Road 143 East heard his music at 9:30 p.m., but about 10:15 p.m. heard the truck's alarm and didn't see him any more and then called in the accident.

“The Burnet Police Department and Burnet Fire Department were there quickly but, by that time, he was no longer with us,” said Wilson. “It was very sad. He was young very well liked.”

“The truck was so new it still had dealer plates. Maybe he wasn't used to the standard shift, but no foul play is suspected.”

Battles was pronounced dead at the scene by Burnet County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Lisa Whitehead.

Wilson was a superintendent at Jordan Foster Construction in Pflugerville. Among his survivors are his parents John and Diane Battles, brothers Josh and Jeramie Battles all of Bertram; his maternal grandparents, Paul and Betty Cunningham of Burnet and Larry and Sue Cantrell of Briggs, and his great-grandfather, Shorty Cantrell of Briggs.

Find his obituary in the Burnet Bulletin, http://bit.ly/2Hk6zZi