Transportation
We're Shamefully Bad at Protecting Pedestrians at Events Like SXSW
A few thousand dollars worth of steel bollards might have prevented last night's mayhem.
The scene on Red River Street in Austin just after midnight this morning was chaotic and terrifying. A driver apparently trying to evade a drunk-driving checkpoint drove through a temporary barricade onto a street that had been blocked off for the South by Southwest festival. He plowed through a crowd of people out enjoying the night, on their way to and from the numerous bars and music venues in the area.
Two people riding a scooter were killed. Twenty-three others on foot were injured, five of them critically. The driver will face capital murder charges.