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9:30 p.m. update: The Texas Department of Public Safety has revealed the cause of a two-vehicle crash near Spicewood that left three people dead Saturday afternoon: bald tires on a wet, slick roadway.
Maribel Enriquez, 17, was driving a Ford Mustang on a wet stretch of Texas 71 — accompanied by her brother Jose Ornelas, 31 — when the car’s worn rear tires caused Enriquez to lose control of her vehicle, DPS said. The Mustang slid across multiple lanes of traffic before colliding with a Mercedes-Benz, which was carrying four people.
Enriquez was taken to St. David’s Medical Center where she later died. Ornelas was taken to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center where he is in critical condition, DPS said.
Preben Hammer, 71, was pronounced dead at the scene, and his wife, Alice, died at St. David’s Medical Center. Susan Stein, 78, was a passenger in the Mercedes-Benz and was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, where she was in critical condition. Another passenger was not transported to the hospital, DPS officials said.
Troopers have not filed any charges related to the accident.
Earlier: A fatal crash on Texas 71 on Saturday afternoon near Spicewood that killed three people happened when a Mercedes vehicle struck a Ford Mustang on the driver’s side, according to a spokesman with the Pedernales Fire Department.
A woman in the Mustang died after being transported to Dell Seton Medical Center, and a man who was in the Mustang is in critical condition, Pedernales Fire Department spokesman Justin O’Baugh said Sunday. Both passengers were in their 20s.
Four people were in the Mercedes. A man in his 70s died at the scene, and a woman in her 60s died later at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center. A woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s were taken to Dell Seton Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Austin-Travis County EMS said Saturday.
The crash happened at 4:48 p.m. on Texas 71 between Fall Creek Road and Fall Creek Estates Drive, O’Baugh said, with the Mercedes colliding with the Mustang in a T-bone-style crash. O’Baugh noted that it was raining when the crash happened, although it’s unclear if the rain was a factor in the crash.
Although safety improvements such as added lanes have been made over time to parts of Texas 71 west of the city, O’Baugh said the crash marked another fatal incident along what continues to be a deadly stretch of road. Both last year and this year, crashes on or near Texas 71 have claimed the lives of multiple people, including a crash in April 2017 that killed three female teenagers and involved a bus chartered by Huston-Tillotson University. A traffic fatality this January happened when a man driving a vehicle lost control of it on an icy bridge along the route.
“I couldn’t count the number of fatal wrecks on that road,” O’Baugh said. “As far as why — a lot of things that include driver error and driving conditions. That stretch of road seems like the deadliest stretch of road that we have in our district.”
Austin-area DPS officials said Sunday they were still investigating the incident.
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Posted: 5:18 p.m. Sunday, June 10, 2018
Despite improvements in the past decade to Texas 71 west of Austin, deadly crashes continue to occur on the highway.
The most recent was a two-vehicle crash Saturday afternoon near Spicewood that killed three people and left three critically injured. The wreck occurred when a Mercedes struck a Ford Mustang on the driver’s side, according to the Pedernales Fire Department.
A woman in the Mustang died after being taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, and a man in the Mustang was in critical condition, Justin O’Baugh, a spokesman for the Pedernales Fire Department, said Sunday. Both passengers were in their 20s.
Four people were in the Mercedes. A man in his 70s died at the scene, and a woman in her 60s died at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center. A woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s were taken to Dell Seton Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services officials said Saturday.
Austin-area Department of Public Safety officials said Sunday that they were continuing to investigate the accident, and the identities of the victims had not been released by Sunday evening.
The crash happened at 4:48 p.m. on Texas 71 between Fall Creek Road and Fall Creek Estates Drive, O’Baugh said. He noted that it was raining when the crash happened but said it was unclear if weather was a factor.
In the past 10 years, improvements have been made to parts of Texas 71 between Austin and Spicewood, such as the widening of lanes and the creation of wider shoulders.
Still, this portion of the highway, with no median, continues to be a deadly stretch, O’Baugh said.
Last year and this year, crashes on or near Texas 71 west of Austin have claimed the lives of several people, including a wreck in April 2017 that killed three female teenagers and involved a bus chartered by Huston-Tillotson University. In January, a fatal accident happened when a man lost control of his vehicle on an icy bridge along the route.
“I couldn’t count the number of fatal wrecks on that road,” O’Baugh said Sunday. “As far as why — a lot of things that include driver error and driving conditions. That stretch of road seems like the deadliest stretch of road that we have in our district.”
A resident of the area, 53-year-old Kathleen Henderson, said crashes on the highway “seem to happen every other week.”
Frank Davis, 55, who owns the nearby Great Taste of Texas farm, said parts of the highway can be perilous because of a lack of a center turn lane. Vehicles turning left into homes or businesses have to stop in the middle of the highway, he said.
“It’s horrible,” Davis said. “All of the neighbors have expressed concern. Something needs to be done because the amount of people killed is just tremendous.”
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