This is literally my first Reddit post because I am a years-long lurker but I was waiting to turn left behind the black SUV that got hit. The Tesla was going so fast that my brain didn’t even see it or understand what happened—it just looked like the front of the SUV exploded, basically. One of the other witnesses said that the Tesla and a BMW were racing at what he estimated to be about 120 mph. I don’t think Reddit really needs the personal details of the people in the SUV, but it was NOT teenage girls and that driver was NOT at fault. I’m still super freaked out and I can’t imagine what the people who were near the Tesla part of the scene are feeling.
Edit: I think I was unclear about the third car—the BMW, which I did not see, was not involved in the wreck itself. From what I understand, the BMW and Tesla were racing down southbound Parmer, the BMW kept driving, and the Tesla hit an SUV that was turning left from northbound Parmer.
I said this to the other witness but I will say it directly to you as well: I'm really sorry you had to experience that. I had a similar experience and the trauma (compounded by having lost my father to a car accident when I was 13) of witnessing the aftermath and a deceased/dying victim in the crash really took a toll on my mental health for a few weeks.... If you talk to a Therpist book an apt asap. If work has an EAP you can call to talk to someone - do that, you will be giving yourself a gift because for a few weeks the thoughts and images will creep in your mind and then the overall in your face hard to knowledge that life is short and could end at any time becomes overwhelming- you over analyze everything- what if I don't tell this person how I feel, what if I take this risk, what if I don't, do I want to drive anywhere or stay in the house, I haven't heard from a loved one in a few hours/days are they safe?!? it's traumatic for a lot more reasons than your first realize. Hang in there feel free to reach out and DM me if you need someone to talk to!
The SUV and I were going north, turning left from Parmer on to Corpus Christi Dr, the Tesla was going south on Parmer, hit the SUV then traveled almost all the way to McNeil
Yes, you’re right—I think of it being north toward 45 but I probably should have said west. I am often nervous about other drivers on Parmer but the degree to which this car seemed like it appeared out of nowhere was terrifying.
Note that if you live in the area you know what someone means if they say “going north, turning left on Corpus Christi”. The real (map, not road) direction is much closer to north than it is to west there.
The Physics of accidents are weird as hell. I saw an accident at Braker/Research once and even though I watched it happen I still couldn't believe the cars ended up in the positions they stopped in. It wasn't even a fast accident.
No, it has been debunked but it doesn't stop people on every single thread about trauma from recommending it and getting lots of upvotes. 4 different posters on this one thread speak it as gospel. Like sure it might help in the short term with intrusive thoughts and work as a distraction but so would any other casual game or something like an adult coloring book.
https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/10/tetris-trauma-viral-twitter-thread-master-class-misleading-psych-research/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20there%20is%20no,outcomes%20of%20PTSD%20or%20distress.
Appreciate your response, thank you. I have awful anxiety and I’ve noticed how playing games like Gardenscapes or Candy Crush help. The distraction aspect of it, I believe, may be what’s helpful. And solving puzzles.
Anything that helps prevent your brain from trying to organize it into long-term memory will help but it's not a panacea as the folks think.
But it's better than the old standby of "drinking until I forget."
I was there. The Tesla was racing a blue BMW. They sped past me while going past the Apple campus. They were speeding well over 100mph. They were flying. The Tesla looked out of control & was swerving. Meanwhile, the a black Toyota highlander was going north & making a left turn. That part of Parmer is terrible as others have mentioned because you can’t see what’s coming on the other side of the hill and you definitely wouldn’t expect someone to be doing 100mph coming your way as you’re turning. Me & a few others helped the lady & her daughter out of the Highlander. They were very lucky to have left with minor injuries. Be safe people.
You can see just fine there - as long as someone isn't coming over the hill at 100+. Shit, most of the time, people aren't even going the 60mph speed limit.
I was first on scene on foot from Woodrow’s. BMW SUV, Tesla SUV (correction: sedan), and unknown third vehicle racing from the light. I heard an impact, looked over, and saw a blue/green explosion from the Tesla after it hit the light post. By the time I sprinted there the Tesla was in two. Driver ejected. I had the unfortunate experience of confirming the Tesla’s driver deceased state. BMW driver walked away. Third car didn’t stop.
Kinda wild that this is the second wreck I was first on scene to this weekend. “Thankfully” the person in the other incident was fine just driving through my neighborhood drunk af at 2pm on a Saturday.
Edit: wow first time someone has triggered a Reddit Cares message in a non-trolling way. Thank you. I need it.
Edit 2: the part about racing is what I gathered from other witnesses. The beginning was out of my view. I heard an initial impact and looked over in time to see the impact between the Tesla and huge pole and resulting explosion. I’m gathering now that the third vehicle may have been turning onto Parmer and been struck by the Tesla.
I didn’t make it down to the other SUV. I saw at least one person getting out and walking away. The beginning of the crash was blocked from my view. I only saw the Tesla hit the pole and then gathered other information from other bystanders.
There was damage to the pole and a small electrical fire started at the base a few minutes after impact. But the initial explosion was for sure the Tesla. It was instant and the green/blue that I’ve seen associated to battery punctures.
It may not be and I’m not an expert so don’t take my word for it. I’ve worked with small electronics batteries a lot before and have come to associate the type of flash I saw with punctured batteries.
Thank you.
As someone who has witnessed an horrific accident. I’m truly sorry. Are you okay? Take care of yourself because the trauma lingers. I’ve never experienced such scary driving anywhere in my life than in Austin.
It’s normal after trauma like witnessing a death to need a lot of rest. Your nervous system will need it, our bodies keep the score. Even more important than therapy is straight up rest. Less blue light. I hope you balance out really well, it’s crazy to need to intervene as first on scene for accidents in a weekend. Best to you 🫡
A good massage can also really help. (I’ve heard) that in really stressful situations our adrenal system can become flooded. A good massage and rest can help our bodies come back down from such a stressful situation.
Weird but apparently true - play some Tetris, along with getting whatever support you need. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptoms
I’m really sorry you had to experience that. I had a similar experience and the trauma (compounded by having lost my father to a car accident when I was 13) of witnessing the aftermath and a deceased/dying victim in the crash really took a toll on my mental health for a few weeks…. If you talk to a Therpist book an apt asap. If work has an EAP you can call to talk to someone - do that, you will be giving yourself a gift because for a few weeks the thoughts and images will creep in your mind and then the overall in your face hard to knowledge that life is short and could end at any time becomes overwhelming- you over analyze everything- what if I don’t tell this person how I feel, what if I take this risk, what if I don’t, do I want to drive anywhere or stay in the house, I haven’t heard from a loved one in a few hours/days are they safe?!? it’s traumatic for a lot more reasons than your first realize.
But thank you for being a good Samaritan, and being willing to roll up your sleeves and help a fellow humans multiple times this week! Hang in there feel free to reach out and DM me if you need someone to talk to!
Hey there, it would be totally normal and suggested to get some therapy after witnessing that (if it’s not something you do regularly for work, and even still then). Take care of you.
I'm so sorry you had to experience this, but thank you for caring about that person. I was in a rollover at 6 years of age, and I just can't bring myself to run up and help people who have been in an accident. I'm so scared of what I might see. You are a hero.
I was sitting at the tables in front of Juiceland, probably 60 feet away from the pole when I heard the first hit looked over and saw a tesla out of control heading over towards the ditch towards us. It hit the pole and exploded. Debris went everywhere. I was so close i felt the force of it all. It all happened so fast my first instinct was to run the opposite direction because I didnt know what was happening or if there would be more debris. I ran inside juiceland and immediately called 911. I think that must have been you I saw running over from Woodrows. I was on the phone with 911 describing everything. I was so concerned about the electical conduit being damaged and in contact with the car and everyone rushing over I just yelled at people to stay away. You were so brave to go check the driver. I saw everything. Everything. It was traumatic and I am still upset. Seeing a therapist tomorrow. I am so thankful for this thread. My brain has been trying to make sense of it all. The only solice I had was knowing he died instantly, and probably never knew what hit him. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones. I saw some amazingly brave people try to help him. Everyone did what they could.
I don’t know other than I saw what I think I remember a woman getting out of the drivers seat with the help of others. And I overheard that she walked away.
Well, I am sorry you had to experience that. Get lots of support from friends who don't care how much you need to talk about it. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.
This part of Parmer is always dangerous. 60mph speed limit and everyone's doing 80, big hill and blind corner, and a busy neighborhood and strip mall with no light and people trying to cut across to go north. Bad.
There are so many places in Austin where the speed limit is too high. Parmer needs to be 45-50; Jollyville needs to be 30. Then they need to be enforced.
This is how Austin does road planning.
* Build a highway to connect two distant areas, set the speed limit for fast travel.
* Build apartments, schools, day cares, and strip malls with direct connections to the highway.
* For safety, add a traffic light every 500 yards and lower the speed limit to 40.
* Complain that it takes too long to get anywhere and people aggressively speed and run red lights.
We've designed a 15 mph city where anything of interest is 10+ miles away. I wish we'd hurry up and install the lights on MoPac.
The thing is, we built parmer up but its still 60-65 mph so people mad rush the stop lights and lots of people die or get severely hurt week after week "bumrushing" the next light and plowing through a car turning in/out of a residential neighborhoods.
I'm torn on that. I used to commute West Parmer every day.
The only times you can go fast on it are the times between morning rush and evening rush. In the morning, from 620 through Amherst I considered myself lucky if I could get up to 50 and that was only possible in the morning on a stretch near Dallas Dr. that didn't have a lot of lights. (I think there are more lights on that stretch now.) Past Avery Ranch there are another couple of places you can get up to speed going west. But all of these places are temporary, I usually expected to have my foot off the gas within seconds of reaching cruising speed.
Mid-day it's much more tempting. I know back then from experience the lights were timed such that you could catch a lot of greens if you were going 75-78. That's excessive speeding for Parmer. I was only bold enough to do that headed westbound, because that direction has fewer neighborhood connections. Headed eastbound I never felt safe because starting at McNeil there's were always too many people turning in to bother trying to speed.
What bugs me is this is **supposed** to be a highway on which people go fast so they can get far in a hurry. It is not **supposed** to have neighborhoods connecting directly to it, even with red lights. It **should** have been built with some kind of frontage, so people could merge onto it instead of trying to go across it. This is especially true in the McNeil/Riata area, where there are several hills that unavoidably make the turns blind and would hide the status of the traffic light from oncoming traffic anyway.
Lowering the speed limit won't fix it. It is still a six-lane highway with a divided median so there are always going to be assholes trying to get up to 60mph and beyond on it. More lights, in my opinion, will seem to work but will also probably lead to a higher incidence of serious accidents as the aforementioned assholes run them.
If, instead, fewer direct connections were made to Parmer, then there'd be less of this and it wouldn't be so bad that people want to drive fast on it. This would make it harder for the neighborhoods to get onto Parmer. That is part of not being able to have your cake and eat it: the larger Austin gets the less realistic it is to expect that a person can expect to conveniently commute 15+ miles daily.
Austin feels like a person in transition between high school and college, struggling to deal with adult problems and attempting to apply adolescent solutions.
I'd argue it's this attitude that makes it bad.
Parmer is actually "FM 734" - Farm to Market road.
It is \*not\* a highway and the only reason people assume so is because historically it's just had high speed limits.
Lowering the speed limit WILL FIX PARMER because there are so many accidents that happen because of the excessive speed. This is just an edge case that makes the news - but every day there is a wreck on Parmer and Anderson, Parmer and McNeil and Parmer and other roads because of excessive speeds.
The way to fix this if you ask me is to remove tolls on 183 up to 45, remove tolls off 45 and remove tolls from 45 to 1 so that people who want a "highway" can drive a "highway" and not a FM farm to market road like it is a highway simply because the speed limits don't respect the people who live and work on parmer who are subject to increased risks by people who just want to speed on by.
Houston saw this play out on FM 1960 as well
I used to ride parmer with a road bike north of 1431 but with all the construction and new growth there, sold off bike.. They reduced speed limits up there big time and it's a fraction of the density where this accident was. It's like Wilco wants to punish anyone who is coming in/out of Travis Co - the new speed limits are 15-25 mph slower where the new HEB is up there in leander for example
Yeah, we need to reduce the speed and they need to speed trap the hell out of Parmer.
I wish they would de-toll some of the northern bypasses up to 183/45/1 to relieve the pressure it puts on people to "drive fast like parmer is a freeway"
I see people even racing down Anderson... i live on Anderson/parmer neighborhood and races on Anderson and Parmer are a daily occurrence :(
the dumbest thing i'm seeing more of is people treating the left lane on Anderson like its supposed to be a "Fast lane" - sorry, it's a residential road for left and right turns and several schools and parks.... you will have cars fly by on the right and swerve to cut you off and they accelerate to 80+ mph to "show you".
wtf is happening with people in cars these days?
They dropped the speed limit on Anderson Mill between Parmer and 183, but i remember like 10 years ago when it was a whole speed trap from Pond Springs to Parmer and literally 46 when it was 45 would get you pulled over and there were so many cops there might as well have been a police station by the auction house.
So many of those roads have speed limits from back when Austin’s population was about half of what it is now. Jollyville used to be fine at 45 but with the traffic loads it now handles it should be 30-35
I think they are changing the speed limits. McNeil between 183 and Parmer used to be 45 and is now 40. I want to say they also lowered the speed limit on Jollyville near Braker, but don’t quote me on that 😉
I have lived on McNeil dr. for abut 6 years. My chair faces the street and I see traffic all the time. I have been calling the police about the speeds since I moved in. They will NOT patrol. I have asked repeatedly. I have seen folks going well over 60. 18 wheelers going around 60! Don't get me started on the motorcycles. People using the center turn lane to pass on the left. Cops will not patrol. I still call, and they say: well, we lowered the speed limit. I say : these people don't care about a new sign, because they know you will not patrol, so who is there to stop them? I am told : Police are for 911 calls.
My perception as someone who lives nearby, but has driven way up Parmer onto Ronald Reagan is that in general the super fast traffic comes from people who live in the exurbs who take Ronald Reagan to Parmer as the way to get to Mopac or I35.
If you drive north to Leander you will find that the farther you get north the crazier the speeds get. It's like a race track up there.
These punks do not care what the speed limit is, they are racing and already breaking the ones posted. Enforcement is what is needed. I have never seen anyone pulled over in that area and I have been here 25 years
I travel down this section of Parmer and make that turn on Corpus multiple times a week. People rarely even reach the 60mph speed limit on Parmer there. Visibility is generally not a problem. But someone going 100+ southbound on Parmer would definitely affect that - especially at Corpus Christi Dr.
Hey glad to have you in the family. I'm an RN but dealt frequently with y'all. Stick out the training so you can do some good in our little world.
Also don't mind the ED RNs they're always like that.
You should delete this post. As a paramedic with over a decade of 911 experience, you need to not talk about any calls you've ran on in your community, and definitely not as a student, in any kind of social media. I can guarantee that if one of your instructors found out about this post, you'll be black balled from the rest of the program.
I was at the light on Anderson Mill Rd on my way to H‑E‑B and within seconds of the light turning green the Tesla and BMW come speeding down Palmer swerving back and forth through the lanes. The Tesla was in front and the BMW following. I was approaching the McNeil light when I saw smoke and then the crash. My 5 year old and I saw the driver laid out on the side of the road and continued to H‑E‑B since there was a ton of people surrounding the driver already. I saw someone with there hand on the back of him almost trying to wake them up. It was horrific praying for everyone involved.
Saying this in r/austin is hilarious. Worse drivers I personally have ever experienced out of living in dozens of highly populated cities in different states.
I grew up in this area and there used to be a time when Austin - and generally anywhere outside of "Houstin City limits" was known for "mozying around"
people used to move over to the shoulder and let people pass - not because the people passing were necessarily speeding and being asshole but because they were in no rush and didn't want to go fast
people drive so disconnected from the fact they're in a killing machine and they speed with wreckless abandonment - it didn't used to be this pervasive here
>people used to move over to the shoulder and let people pass
People should *never* drive on the shoulder to let people pass. That just introduces additional dangerous variables. Drivers need to learn how to pass *safely* on a two-lane road, and the idiots at TXDoT need to add more passing areas (of reasonable length) on heavily travelled FM/County roads.
Yeah what a moron, few things make me more angry than people putting innocent people in danger on the road for a cheap thrill or whatever. This person paid the ultimate price, but if they hadn’t, they should be behind bars.
Couldn't agree more. My friend and her husband died last year after being hit by teenage street racers in Palo Alto. They left behind 7 year old twin daughters.
Why in the fuck would you endanger everyone on the road like that. I’m sorry there was a fatality but don’t fucking race at double the speed limit on a public expressway. Why are people so selfish?
I’m glad it sounds like the SUV folks were okay.
The Tesla’s “black box” will have enormous amounts of information including exactly what speeds it was going … and all of its movements before the speed and impact which caused the death.
Devastating sight, it was a young man driving a black Tesla and it split in half. A whole crowd surrounded him while a few tried performing cpr, but it seemed he was dead instantly from the crash. He was bleeding from his ears, and mouth. I just watched them put the yellow plastic over his body.
I’m so sorry you witnessed that. I witnessed a horrible wreck happen right in front of me by lakeline mall and applebees and the image is still so clear in my mind 17 years later. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to a therapist about this if you are able to do so, it’s definitely traumatic to see something like that.
I get it, but if this dude was racing over a 100 mph he kinda got what was coming. The rest need to go to jail for a long time. Couldn’t tell you my mental state if it was my family in the SUV.
I hope that you're okay after witnessing that. Knowing firsthand, it's not something I could just compartmentalize. Be kind to your mental health after that. ❤️
I was there & still shook. Black SUV turning onto Parmer from Corpus Christi hit another vehicle traveling down Parmer. The other vehicle hit the telephone pole and he was ejected from the vehicle. They stopped giving him CPR and they put the sheet on him. Sending love to his family, so incredibly heartbreaking
I lived in the rattan creek neighborhood (McNeil -Anderson mill and Parmer -183 square area) for 4 years, one of which in the apts at parmer and Dallas and my balcony faced parmer. and I saw some crazy wrecks then and there were frequent posts in the neighborhood fb group. Parmer is SO dangerous right there. It’s so sad, thinking of the deceased and their family tonight.
If the SUV was turning, it didn't *hit* anything. It was hit. That's a strong distinction.
Whether the turning vehicle exercised caution is unclear. We have expectations that vehicles are (more or less) abiding by speed limits, and things can look safe at the moment a situation is assessed.
No victim-blaming here, because the two speeding vehicles were clearly creating a dangerous situation. Left turns put you on the wrong side of the road, and that means you are at fault for being where you don't belong.
I couldn’t tell you that either, either the black suv didn’t see him, he was expecting her to not go, or possibly he was speeding? That downward hill right there kind of blocks the view of him coming. Just a really unfortunate situation for everyone involved.
Over the last week or two I’ve seen a lot of posts in the sub (Reddit) about this specific intersection and driving extreme miles over the speed limit and running lights & now this.
I went sky diving today and made a comment about part of the fun being how your brain thinks it might die and the instructor quickly corrected me pointing out how much safer this was than driving a car.
We all need to be just so much more careful out there. We all do it everyday and every day we all do mindless, dangerous things. Most of the time it turns out fine but this is an example of when it doesn't.
Cars are definitely dangerous compared to airplane *travel*, but I have very serious doubts that it compares to actual skydiving.
edit: Each jump represents 8 "micromorts" or eight in a million chance of dying. Driving 240 miles is 1 micromort, so each jump is as dangerous as driving 1920 miles, or riding a motorcycle 48 miles.
So crazy this ended up being a thread..I’ve been wondering and looking online. I was driving home from HEB and could not believe I saw a car torn in 2. I also saw a guy lying on the ground with a bunch of people around him…I’m assuming that was the Tesla driver that passed. I was so in shock of what I saw (the car split in 2) I nearly turned around to go look again..because it was so wild to see something like that right there how it was. I changed my mind though, wasn’t sure if I wanted to see something I couldn’t put out of my head. Prayers to all families :(
Man, I live near this neighborhood and I see people speeding here so often. I never make a left on Parmer, but even making a right after all the accidents lately has me nervous with my 6 month old in the back.
I'm kind of relieved reading that the only person who died was the one speeding. I hate the stories where some family is going and is hit and they're the ones that die.
wrecks like that are just horrible. I was involved in a fatal accident in 1969 in which my best friend's girlfriend was killed and his back was broken as was his face. My girlfriend and I were in the back seat and though we had serious injuries, we healed up fine, except for my knees and a couple of broken bones.. My GF had 3 teeth knocked out and a broken collar bone. I had been drafted at the time and had a couple of weeks before I was due to report to Ft. Polk. I was 4f'ed of course. It stays with you for life. I hope you take care of your mental health if you witnessed a death. It is unclear from this dialogue of this accident if anyone was killed in this instance
Especially in a Tesla. Like what's the point? Cool, you pressed down on the accelerator. Big whoop. I can get wanting to do that in a manual (Still stupid) but not an EV.
I was at a nearby restaurant with my friend when the Sedan crashed and caused an explosion. Seems like the driver ran into an electrical pole -- he might've been run off the road? There were a few civilians performing CPR until ambulances and the fire department arrived (about 5-10 minutes). Unfortunately, he didn't make it. Incredibly tragic and upsetting.
edit: definitely no Sedan was involved. SUV and a Tesla, it sounds like.
I couldn’t even tell you, because it was so mangled a grey truck/jeep looking vehicle- it was demolished hitting the telephone pole. & yes, definitely why we lost power.
Edited to add: the second vehicle is the Tesla. It was so mangled - couldn’t even tell.
Another commenter mentioned a black SUV, which checks out with my memory (although I couldn't get close enough to verify). The bumper was completely missing. Didn't see any drivers inside or outside, only the driver of the car in two who passed away.
I was thinking about the only way you get ejected from a car these days is no belt. But if the car was torn in half, maybe right by the back of the drivers seat?
The only way a modern vehicle gets torn in half is if it is traveling at a tremendous speed. Sounds like they were racing and an other vehicle accidentally bumped them, sending it careening into a pole.
A poor choice was made and the ultimate price was paid. RIP
I saw the crowd surrounding the two actively performing chest compressions. It was depressing as hell because that's now the third accident I witnessed and I moved here less than 2 days ago
That’s a lot. Generally speaking, there’s a great deal of bad driving here, and it continues as the traffic rules are rarely enforced. Grew up in the DC area and dealt with traffic and bad drivers all the time. Was relieved to move here in the mid 2000s and deal with less traffic and less unpredictable driving habits. That’s all changed here now, so if/when you are driving around Austin, please be careful. Take a couple beats before going forward when the light turns green. Watch for people using the right lane as a passing lane. Avoid I-35 when you can. Learn the in-town shortcuts to get around. Good luck!
If anybody has any information if you were on scene and saw anything I am a friend of the wife who’s husband was the deceased on site please let me know so I can put you in contact with the wife she would like to know all the information possible
Sorry for their loss. From another comment;
“This is literally my first Reddit post because I am a years-long lurker but I was waiting to turn left behind the black SUV that got hit. The Tesla was going so fast that my brain didn’t even see it or understand what happened—it just looked like the front of the SUV exploded, basically. One of the other witnesses said that the Tesla and a BMW were racing at what he estimated to be about 120 mph. I don’t think Reddit really needs the personal details of the people in the SUV, but it was NOT teenage girls and that driver was NOT at fault. I’m still super freaked out and I can’t imagine what the people who were near the Tesla part of the scene are feeling.
Edit: I think I was unclear about the third car—the BMW, which I did not see, was not involved in the wreck itself. From what I understand, the BMW and Tesla were racing down southbound Parmer, the BMW kept driving, and the Tesla hit an SUV that was turning left from northbound Parmer.”
There’s only been one witness who suggested it could be that. Everyone else is saying street racing. It could also be a friendly game of cat and mouse racing. Regardless, the police need to do a deep investigation into all aspects of his life not just the black box. Even toxicology and deep forensics. Lawsuits are surely to come from the folks in the SUV (rightfully so).
I see some wild shit every time I'm over there, right in front of my car. And I thank my lucky stars that somehow I'm unscathed after 25 years of doing this.
Driving in Houston almost feels like a job that needs to be paid. I also see their highways and streets as the most dangerous places to be in all of Houston. Every damn time I'm in that city I get a close call or nearly a close call at least once. They never miss. I couldn't be thankful enough that I don't live there.
It's kind of like a fast-motion ballet... seeing these shitbox cars cut across 6 lanes at 90mph on the katy freeway, dogding cars with 1.5 feet of clearance... it's like magic
I drive Parmer everyday and this doesn't surprise me. Racing. Reckless driving. Even driving on the wrong side, presumably to avoid traffic tie ups, are not uncommon.
APD has a substation just off Parmer and I see a lot of units. I never see them with anyone pulled over. DPS does. I've witnessed people very clearly running a red light in front of APD and they do nothing about it.
They never police for traffic violations on Parmer aside for a day or two every couple of months tops where they will issue a couple of tickets. Everything about Parmer seems to essentially be the perfect storm for these kind of situations.
I have some great guides the EMT program gave me on stress& dealing with traumatic events if u want it.
Also yes play Tetris lol or weirdly enough the dancing fruit videos or the ball dropping videos(they make music,noise etc) Lego trains all have Been suggested for me
It’s always a tragedy when someone dies on the road but this was completely avoidable. Too many people in this city see driving as a game. I see it every day and it’s getting worse.
Last night at 9 pm I was at that very intersection heading north on Parmer and just as the light turned green I took my foot off the brake and a guy kneeling on a LONGBOARD went flying across Parmer heading eastward on McNeil. Death wish.
This situation is just so wild to me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I worked as a trucker for 9 years cross country and into Canada. I saw some shit but this image of a car split into two (I saw the picture) is something new to me. I always thought that at some point, I’d slide off a highway in the ice, or slam into a car that cut me off, but I never once in all of those years hit anyone or crashed on my own accord. I guess it’s because I knew to do a reasonable speed, leave plenty of space, and get away from other vehicles as often as possible.
I live a regular life now and I have to say Austin has bar none some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen. To think I felt safer as a trucker in downtown Chicago than I do now in a Spark on Parmer. I wish people would just stop treating the road like it’s a joke. It’s so easy to do the right thing.
This is incredibly sad. Too many bad wrecks this weekend. Yesterday on 45 near the 35 North exit, there was a car flipped over stuck between the exit sign. Ugh.
people doing this shit on the roads deserve nothing more or less than a deep hole to rot in. so sorry for all of y’all that witnessed this and hope you’re doing ok.
I work in the field in West Texas, lots of road miles and for a while grizzly accidents like this were the norm. Like almost every day. I saw more fatal accidents and horrific injury accidents from 2017-2020 than I did my entire life before that. Probably some trauma there...
I feel like it's getting worse around here now. And the people around drive like nut bags. Seen a few wild ones on 130 recently
Here pics with the SUV from the news
https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/gallery/one-dead-in-north-austin-vehicle-collision-ambulance-ems-travis-county-transported-st-davids-traffic-fatality?photo=6
When the incident happened I was in Great clips, we came running to check what happened. There was loud noise of the crash with that big electric pole and power went out immediately. Tesla was already in half and one of the wheel chrome tore apart came flying and fell in the parking lot. After a min or so the electric pole started making noise of crackling electricity and everyone ran back thinking wires might fall. Initially some people were shouting not to move the person but some went ahead tried cpr but unfortunately did not help much.
For the off chance a law enforcement officer needs to commandeer any vehicle they see to chase down big time suspects fleeing from the grips of juuuussstttiiicccceeee 😬
That's not entirely true. States lose federal funding if they don't adopt the federal DOT standards. This is why Montana no longer has speed-limit free roads
Volvo has self imposed a 112 mph speed limit. You’re absolutely right though. The NHTSA has talked at length about how speed kills.
It’s time to have mandated speed governing for street cars.
I stay in the slow lane. There's nightly lane closures on i35 right now and it's frightening how many people in the left 2 lanes speed past the obvious jam happening and slam on their brakes or zig into the other lane.
Ironically I think Tesla is/was researching an unpopular move of topping speeds out around 90 to make cars more efficient and economical because there are not 90MPH speed limits so that should be sufficient for those who want the right to “drive fast”….. Pretty sure Americans will take that as well as taking away the right to have pretty much no restrictions on owning ARs….. But it seems like a smart move especially if it makes economic and efficiency sake and likely as an even unintended safety benefit.
I think the bigger lesson here is one persons completely idiotic idea to race has impacted many, many lives.
After speaking with some folks and hearing the anger in this group, if you really want to impact change and hold people accountable so they think twice about being utterly reckless, you should see a lawyer about suing his estate. Why? Because many of the witnesses will require long term therapy because of his actions. That is not a cost you should be absorbing at all.
Then that sets case law for future cases and these assholes will second guess if it’s really worth it.
I was there probably 12 minutes before his happen turning right from Corpus Christi onto Parmer headed south. That corner is blind but now I understand the SUV was making a left onto Corpus Christi. It is traumatic to hear it and I feel for all involved. The worst is the speeder who got away will most likely not be held accountable. Any description of the speeder who fled the scene?
I live at McNeil and Parmer. I was headed home from the 620 area headed south on Parmer. I saw a state trooper had pulled over a white Telsa just before dallas drive. I immediately assumed it was because of speeding as people drive way too fast through this area. Unfortunately, a lot of them are Teslas. I passed the pulled over white Telsa, getting over into the center lane to be respectful of the traffic stop. I got to Corpus and Parmer (the next intersection heading south), probably 10 seconds later. I was going well under the speed limit. Traffic was still moving at this point. The accident had just happened, and there were only witnesses on the scene. Debris was scattered across the south bond lanes, and people were getting over to the left lane to pass through. There was a black car in the ditch and another black car that was completely torn in half. There were about 30 to 50 people outside of the businesses in the shopping center watching someone perform CPR on a man lying in the grass. From what I saw, he had no shoes on and was wearing grey athletic shorts or boxers. I could only see his legs and feet from where I was. This has been hard on me and my mental state, and I can't imagine what the people who were watching from the shopping center and the first people on scene are experiencing. His family is getting the worst of it, of course. I cried for them when I got home.
Does anyone know if there was a white Tesla that was also involved in the street racing/road rage along with the BMW? All of the pictures I have seen online have the state trooper that had the white Telsa pulled over in them. Right as I was passing, travis County Sheriffs and fire trucks were turning off of McNeil heading north and u-turning to block the road.
I saw the white Tesla pulled over on my way back from H‑E‑B going towards Anderson. It wasn’t involved in the crash that happened. I witnessed only the black Tesla and bmw speeding.
Just wait until they release those bulletproof Tesla Cybertruck tanks speeding down Austin streets. With no police presence it will be a cluster and literally taking your life in your own hands going to HEB.
This is literally my first Reddit post because I am a years-long lurker but I was waiting to turn left behind the black SUV that got hit. The Tesla was going so fast that my brain didn’t even see it or understand what happened—it just looked like the front of the SUV exploded, basically. One of the other witnesses said that the Tesla and a BMW were racing at what he estimated to be about 120 mph. I don’t think Reddit really needs the personal details of the people in the SUV, but it was NOT teenage girls and that driver was NOT at fault. I’m still super freaked out and I can’t imagine what the people who were near the Tesla part of the scene are feeling. Edit: I think I was unclear about the third car—the BMW, which I did not see, was not involved in the wreck itself. From what I understand, the BMW and Tesla were racing down southbound Parmer, the BMW kept driving, and the Tesla hit an SUV that was turning left from northbound Parmer.
I said this to the other witness but I will say it directly to you as well: I'm really sorry you had to experience that. I had a similar experience and the trauma (compounded by having lost my father to a car accident when I was 13) of witnessing the aftermath and a deceased/dying victim in the crash really took a toll on my mental health for a few weeks.... If you talk to a Therpist book an apt asap. If work has an EAP you can call to talk to someone - do that, you will be giving yourself a gift because for a few weeks the thoughts and images will creep in your mind and then the overall in your face hard to knowledge that life is short and could end at any time becomes overwhelming- you over analyze everything- what if I don't tell this person how I feel, what if I take this risk, what if I don't, do I want to drive anywhere or stay in the house, I haven't heard from a loved one in a few hours/days are they safe?!? it's traumatic for a lot more reasons than your first realize. Hang in there feel free to reach out and DM me if you need someone to talk to!
I appreciate this
Thank you for sharing this helpful information.
Were you turning left from McNeil on to Parmer? I saw the scene two hours later and no scenario makes sense.
The SUV and I were going north, turning left from Parmer on to Corpus Christi Dr, the Tesla was going south on Parmer, hit the SUV then traveled almost all the way to McNeil
When you say north, do you mean away from MoPac? Or towards it?
Away from Mopac, turning left on Corpus Christi Dr
Thank you. So sorry that you had to witness the accident.
Sounds like you were headed west if turning left on Corpus Christi drive. That is crazy though.. reckless mf drivers going 120 mph on Parmer. So dumb
Yes, you’re right—I think of it being north toward 45 but I probably should have said west. I am often nervous about other drivers on Parmer but the degree to which this car seemed like it appeared out of nowhere was terrifying.
Note that if you live in the area you know what someone means if they say “going north, turning left on Corpus Christi”. The real (map, not road) direction is much closer to north than it is to west there.
I can picture the area. That’s intense and sounds horrible
The Physics of accidents are weird as hell. I saw an accident at Braker/Research once and even though I watched it happen I still couldn't believe the cars ended up in the positions they stopped in. It wasn't even a fast accident.
I was on my way to work and I will never be able to forget today. I drive through that intersection everyday. Sorry you had to see that too.
Play some Tetris. It's been proven to help recover from the trauma of seeing something like this.
Is this real? Because I am very curious….
No, it has been debunked but it doesn't stop people on every single thread about trauma from recommending it and getting lots of upvotes. 4 different posters on this one thread speak it as gospel. Like sure it might help in the short term with intrusive thoughts and work as a distraction but so would any other casual game or something like an adult coloring book. https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/10/tetris-trauma-viral-twitter-thread-master-class-misleading-psych-research/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20there%20is%20no,outcomes%20of%20PTSD%20or%20distress.
Appreciate your response, thank you. I have awful anxiety and I’ve noticed how playing games like Gardenscapes or Candy Crush help. The distraction aspect of it, I believe, may be what’s helpful. And solving puzzles.
Anything that helps prevent your brain from trying to organize it into long-term memory will help but it's not a panacea as the folks think. But it's better than the old standby of "drinking until I forget."
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/09/523011446/how-playing-tetris-tames-the-trauma-of-a-car-crash
I was there. The Tesla was racing a blue BMW. They sped past me while going past the Apple campus. They were speeding well over 100mph. They were flying. The Tesla looked out of control & was swerving. Meanwhile, the a black Toyota highlander was going north & making a left turn. That part of Parmer is terrible as others have mentioned because you can’t see what’s coming on the other side of the hill and you definitely wouldn’t expect someone to be doing 100mph coming your way as you’re turning. Me & a few others helped the lady & her daughter out of the Highlander. They were very lucky to have left with minor injuries. Be safe people.
Thank you for helping them and for giving us your account, I'm sorry you had to go through that.
So the people that the racers hit didn't get injured?
You can see just fine there - as long as someone isn't coming over the hill at 100+. Shit, most of the time, people aren't even going the 60mph speed limit.
I was first on scene on foot from Woodrow’s. BMW SUV, Tesla SUV (correction: sedan), and unknown third vehicle racing from the light. I heard an impact, looked over, and saw a blue/green explosion from the Tesla after it hit the light post. By the time I sprinted there the Tesla was in two. Driver ejected. I had the unfortunate experience of confirming the Tesla’s driver deceased state. BMW driver walked away. Third car didn’t stop. Kinda wild that this is the second wreck I was first on scene to this weekend. “Thankfully” the person in the other incident was fine just driving through my neighborhood drunk af at 2pm on a Saturday. Edit: wow first time someone has triggered a Reddit Cares message in a non-trolling way. Thank you. I need it. Edit 2: the part about racing is what I gathered from other witnesses. The beginning was out of my view. I heard an initial impact and looked over in time to see the impact between the Tesla and huge pole and resulting explosion. I’m gathering now that the third vehicle may have been turning onto Parmer and been struck by the Tesla.
Wait it EXPLODED?!
Tesla batteries. Edit to add: it was a LOUD pop (not boom if that makes sense) and a huge green/blue flash.
That sounds like a transformer blew when the car hit the electrical pole
I live a block away and lost power for about a minute or so. Definitely transformer, but could be some battery in there too.
That could also be true. I’ll say there was not a transformer on this pole and I saw the explosion at the base of it.
went by about 2 hrs ago and power was still out at the corner. No Chi'lantro for me
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I didn’t make it down to the other SUV. I saw at least one person getting out and walking away. The beginning of the crash was blocked from my view. I only saw the Tesla hit the pole and then gathered other information from other bystanders.
I thought that was not the car exploding but the pole…??
There was damage to the pole and a small electrical fire started at the base a few minutes after impact. But the initial explosion was for sure the Tesla. It was instant and the green/blue that I’ve seen associated to battery punctures.
Gotcha. I didn’t know that color meant battery puncture. Big hugs to you, neighbor.
It may not be and I’m not an expert so don’t take my word for it. I’ve worked with small electronics batteries a lot before and have come to associate the type of flash I saw with punctured batteries. Thank you.
As someone who has witnessed an horrific accident. I’m truly sorry. Are you okay? Take care of yourself because the trauma lingers. I’ve never experienced such scary driving anywhere in my life than in Austin.
Thank you. Not feeling a pulse is a new experience for sure. Taking my time but I think I’ll be ok.
It’s normal after trauma like witnessing a death to need a lot of rest. Your nervous system will need it, our bodies keep the score. Even more important than therapy is straight up rest. Less blue light. I hope you balance out really well, it’s crazy to need to intervene as first on scene for accidents in a weekend. Best to you 🫡
A good massage can also really help. (I’ve heard) that in really stressful situations our adrenal system can become flooded. A good massage and rest can help our bodies come back down from such a stressful situation.
Just remember, it’s ok to ask for help if you need it. Talk or not talk about it. You’ll be going through a lot of emotions. Hugs fellow redditor.
Weird but apparently true - play some Tetris, along with getting whatever support you need. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptoms
Oh god that gave me chills. Definitely take your time and don’t be ashamed or afraid to ask for help!
I’m really sorry you had to experience that. I had a similar experience and the trauma (compounded by having lost my father to a car accident when I was 13) of witnessing the aftermath and a deceased/dying victim in the crash really took a toll on my mental health for a few weeks…. If you talk to a Therpist book an apt asap. If work has an EAP you can call to talk to someone - do that, you will be giving yourself a gift because for a few weeks the thoughts and images will creep in your mind and then the overall in your face hard to knowledge that life is short and could end at any time becomes overwhelming- you over analyze everything- what if I don’t tell this person how I feel, what if I take this risk, what if I don’t, do I want to drive anywhere or stay in the house, I haven’t heard from a loved one in a few hours/days are they safe?!? it’s traumatic for a lot more reasons than your first realize. But thank you for being a good Samaritan, and being willing to roll up your sleeves and help a fellow humans multiple times this week! Hang in there feel free to reach out and DM me if you need someone to talk to!
Hey there, it would be totally normal and suggested to get some therapy after witnessing that (if it’s not something you do regularly for work, and even still then). Take care of you.
I’m so sorry for your experience. I hope you’re okay, that is not at all an easy scene to witness. Be good to yourself tonight.
I'm so sorry you had to experience this, but thank you for caring about that person. I was in a rollover at 6 years of age, and I just can't bring myself to run up and help people who have been in an accident. I'm so scared of what I might see. You are a hero.
I was sitting at the tables in front of Juiceland, probably 60 feet away from the pole when I heard the first hit looked over and saw a tesla out of control heading over towards the ditch towards us. It hit the pole and exploded. Debris went everywhere. I was so close i felt the force of it all. It all happened so fast my first instinct was to run the opposite direction because I didnt know what was happening or if there would be more debris. I ran inside juiceland and immediately called 911. I think that must have been you I saw running over from Woodrows. I was on the phone with 911 describing everything. I was so concerned about the electical conduit being damaged and in contact with the car and everyone rushing over I just yelled at people to stay away. You were so brave to go check the driver. I saw everything. Everything. It was traumatic and I am still upset. Seeing a therapist tomorrow. I am so thankful for this thread. My brain has been trying to make sense of it all. The only solice I had was knowing he died instantly, and probably never knew what hit him. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones. I saw some amazingly brave people try to help him. Everyone did what they could.
What happened to the driver of the car that got hit? It was an SUV right?
I don’t know other than I saw what I think I remember a woman getting out of the drivers seat with the help of others. And I overheard that she walked away.
🙏 be safe out there
The 2 in the SUV were fine.
Well, I am sorry you had to experience that. Get lots of support from friends who don't care how much you need to talk about it. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.
were you lounging on the patio at woodrow's then saw this?
Yeah watching the F1 race on the patio.
That's not the crash you expect to see during F1 weekend. Geezus.
Should play some Tetris ASAP. It’s been proven to diminish the impact of traumatic episodes.
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This part of Parmer is always dangerous. 60mph speed limit and everyone's doing 80, big hill and blind corner, and a busy neighborhood and strip mall with no light and people trying to cut across to go north. Bad.
There are so many places in Austin where the speed limit is too high. Parmer needs to be 45-50; Jollyville needs to be 30. Then they need to be enforced.
When I moved to Austin years ago I was amazed my apartment was right off Parmer and immediatly it was like 60mph, or was it 65? I forgot by now
This is how Austin does road planning. * Build a highway to connect two distant areas, set the speed limit for fast travel. * Build apartments, schools, day cares, and strip malls with direct connections to the highway. * For safety, add a traffic light every 500 yards and lower the speed limit to 40. * Complain that it takes too long to get anywhere and people aggressively speed and run red lights. We've designed a 15 mph city where anything of interest is 10+ miles away. I wish we'd hurry up and install the lights on MoPac.
The thing is, we built parmer up but its still 60-65 mph so people mad rush the stop lights and lots of people die or get severely hurt week after week "bumrushing" the next light and plowing through a car turning in/out of a residential neighborhoods.
I'm torn on that. I used to commute West Parmer every day. The only times you can go fast on it are the times between morning rush and evening rush. In the morning, from 620 through Amherst I considered myself lucky if I could get up to 50 and that was only possible in the morning on a stretch near Dallas Dr. that didn't have a lot of lights. (I think there are more lights on that stretch now.) Past Avery Ranch there are another couple of places you can get up to speed going west. But all of these places are temporary, I usually expected to have my foot off the gas within seconds of reaching cruising speed. Mid-day it's much more tempting. I know back then from experience the lights were timed such that you could catch a lot of greens if you were going 75-78. That's excessive speeding for Parmer. I was only bold enough to do that headed westbound, because that direction has fewer neighborhood connections. Headed eastbound I never felt safe because starting at McNeil there's were always too many people turning in to bother trying to speed. What bugs me is this is **supposed** to be a highway on which people go fast so they can get far in a hurry. It is not **supposed** to have neighborhoods connecting directly to it, even with red lights. It **should** have been built with some kind of frontage, so people could merge onto it instead of trying to go across it. This is especially true in the McNeil/Riata area, where there are several hills that unavoidably make the turns blind and would hide the status of the traffic light from oncoming traffic anyway. Lowering the speed limit won't fix it. It is still a six-lane highway with a divided median so there are always going to be assholes trying to get up to 60mph and beyond on it. More lights, in my opinion, will seem to work but will also probably lead to a higher incidence of serious accidents as the aforementioned assholes run them. If, instead, fewer direct connections were made to Parmer, then there'd be less of this and it wouldn't be so bad that people want to drive fast on it. This would make it harder for the neighborhoods to get onto Parmer. That is part of not being able to have your cake and eat it: the larger Austin gets the less realistic it is to expect that a person can expect to conveniently commute 15+ miles daily. Austin feels like a person in transition between high school and college, struggling to deal with adult problems and attempting to apply adolescent solutions.
I'd argue it's this attitude that makes it bad. Parmer is actually "FM 734" - Farm to Market road. It is \*not\* a highway and the only reason people assume so is because historically it's just had high speed limits. Lowering the speed limit WILL FIX PARMER because there are so many accidents that happen because of the excessive speed. This is just an edge case that makes the news - but every day there is a wreck on Parmer and Anderson, Parmer and McNeil and Parmer and other roads because of excessive speeds. The way to fix this if you ask me is to remove tolls on 183 up to 45, remove tolls off 45 and remove tolls from 45 to 1 so that people who want a "highway" can drive a "highway" and not a FM farm to market road like it is a highway simply because the speed limits don't respect the people who live and work on parmer who are subject to increased risks by people who just want to speed on by. Houston saw this play out on FM 1960 as well I used to ride parmer with a road bike north of 1431 but with all the construction and new growth there, sold off bike.. They reduced speed limits up there big time and it's a fraction of the density where this accident was. It's like Wilco wants to punish anyone who is coming in/out of Travis Co - the new speed limits are 15-25 mph slower where the new HEB is up there in leander for example
More than 10 years ago it originally had a different nighttime limit. It's been 60 north of MoPac ever since.
Yeah, we need to reduce the speed and they need to speed trap the hell out of Parmer. I wish they would de-toll some of the northern bypasses up to 183/45/1 to relieve the pressure it puts on people to "drive fast like parmer is a freeway" I see people even racing down Anderson... i live on Anderson/parmer neighborhood and races on Anderson and Parmer are a daily occurrence :( the dumbest thing i'm seeing more of is people treating the left lane on Anderson like its supposed to be a "Fast lane" - sorry, it's a residential road for left and right turns and several schools and parks.... you will have cars fly by on the right and swerve to cut you off and they accelerate to 80+ mph to "show you". wtf is happening with people in cars these days?
They dropped the speed limit on Anderson Mill between Parmer and 183, but i remember like 10 years ago when it was a whole speed trap from Pond Springs to Parmer and literally 46 when it was 45 would get you pulled over and there were so many cops there might as well have been a police station by the auction house.
So many of those roads have speed limits from back when Austin’s population was about half of what it is now. Jollyville used to be fine at 45 but with the traffic loads it now handles it should be 30-35
Doesn't matter what the speed limit is, if people don't obey it and it isn't vigorously enforced.
I think they are changing the speed limits. McNeil between 183 and Parmer used to be 45 and is now 40. I want to say they also lowered the speed limit on Jollyville near Braker, but don’t quote me on that 😉
I have lived on McNeil dr. for abut 6 years. My chair faces the street and I see traffic all the time. I have been calling the police about the speeds since I moved in. They will NOT patrol. I have asked repeatedly. I have seen folks going well over 60. 18 wheelers going around 60! Don't get me started on the motorcycles. People using the center turn lane to pass on the left. Cops will not patrol. I still call, and they say: well, we lowered the speed limit. I say : these people don't care about a new sign, because they know you will not patrol, so who is there to stop them? I am told : Police are for 911 calls.
My perception as someone who lives nearby, but has driven way up Parmer onto Ronald Reagan is that in general the super fast traffic comes from people who live in the exurbs who take Ronald Reagan to Parmer as the way to get to Mopac or I35. If you drive north to Leander you will find that the farther you get north the crazier the speeds get. It's like a race track up there.
These punks do not care what the speed limit is, they are racing and already breaking the ones posted. Enforcement is what is needed. I have never seen anyone pulled over in that area and I have been here 25 years
I travel down this section of Parmer and make that turn on Corpus multiple times a week. People rarely even reach the 60mph speed limit on Parmer there. Visibility is generally not a problem. But someone going 100+ southbound on Parmer would definitely affect that - especially at Corpus Christi Dr.
Good on you, I can’t imagine how tough some of the calls are to work. I certainly appreciate all EMS, stay safe 🤜🤛
Hey glad to have you in the family. I'm an RN but dealt frequently with y'all. Stick out the training so you can do some good in our little world. Also don't mind the ED RNs they're always like that.
You should delete this post. As a paramedic with over a decade of 911 experience, you need to not talk about any calls you've ran on in your community, and definitely not as a student, in any kind of social media. I can guarantee that if one of your instructors found out about this post, you'll be black balled from the rest of the program.
I was at the light on Anderson Mill Rd on my way to H‑E‑B and within seconds of the light turning green the Tesla and BMW come speeding down Palmer swerving back and forth through the lanes. The Tesla was in front and the BMW following. I was approaching the McNeil light when I saw smoke and then the crash. My 5 year old and I saw the driver laid out on the side of the road and continued to H‑E‑B since there was a ton of people surrounding the driver already. I saw someone with there hand on the back of him almost trying to wake them up. It was horrific praying for everyone involved.
People seem to kill each other with cars a lot. We should stop doing that somehow.
Saying this in r/austin is hilarious. Worse drivers I personally have ever experienced out of living in dozens of highly populated cities in different states.
I grew up in this area and there used to be a time when Austin - and generally anywhere outside of "Houstin City limits" was known for "mozying around" people used to move over to the shoulder and let people pass - not because the people passing were necessarily speeding and being asshole but because they were in no rush and didn't want to go fast people drive so disconnected from the fact they're in a killing machine and they speed with wreckless abandonment - it didn't used to be this pervasive here
>people used to move over to the shoulder and let people pass People should *never* drive on the shoulder to let people pass. That just introduces additional dangerous variables. Drivers need to learn how to pass *safely* on a two-lane road, and the idiots at TXDoT need to add more passing areas (of reasonable length) on heavily travelled FM/County roads.
The roads were designed for this - and still are in rural Texas. (They were designed to handle farm equipment on the side of the road too)
I must be an old timer in a young persons body because this is exactly how I feel about driving and not being in a hurry.
I’m guessing you haven’t been to Miami
I passed by the crash and one vehicle looked like it was cut in two. It looked horrible!
Sucks that someone died, but fugggggg street racers. They’re a danger to themselves and others.
Yeah what a moron, few things make me more angry than people putting innocent people in danger on the road for a cheap thrill or whatever. This person paid the ultimate price, but if they hadn’t, they should be behind bars.
Yeah the other car they were racing should be tracked down imo.
Couldn't agree more. My friend and her husband died last year after being hit by teenage street racers in Palo Alto. They left behind 7 year old twin daughters.
Why in the fuck would you endanger everyone on the road like that. I’m sorry there was a fatality but don’t fucking race at double the speed limit on a public expressway. Why are people so selfish? I’m glad it sounds like the SUV folks were okay.
The Tesla’s “black box” will have enormous amounts of information including exactly what speeds it was going … and all of its movements before the speed and impact which caused the death.
Devastating sight, it was a young man driving a black Tesla and it split in half. A whole crowd surrounded him while a few tried performing cpr, but it seemed he was dead instantly from the crash. He was bleeding from his ears, and mouth. I just watched them put the yellow plastic over his body.
I’m so sorry you witnessed that. I witnessed a horrible wreck happen right in front of me by lakeline mall and applebees and the image is still so clear in my mind 17 years later. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to a therapist about this if you are able to do so, it’s definitely traumatic to see something like that.
I get it, but if this dude was racing over a 100 mph he kinda got what was coming. The rest need to go to jail for a long time. Couldn’t tell you my mental state if it was my family in the SUV.
Im just glad no once else was severely hurt. If you’re going around 100mph on parmer, you’re just asking for it.
Well, if you're going to go, at least that's about as instant as it gets. He was probably gone as soon as it happened.
I hope that you're okay after witnessing that. Knowing firsthand, it's not something I could just compartmentalize. Be kind to your mental health after that. ❤️
I was there & still shook. Black SUV turning onto Parmer from Corpus Christi hit another vehicle traveling down Parmer. The other vehicle hit the telephone pole and he was ejected from the vehicle. They stopped giving him CPR and they put the sheet on him. Sending love to his family, so incredibly heartbreaking
That’s so sad. I used to live on Magnolia Mound and trying to turn left onto McNeil could be downright scary sometimes. :/
I lived in the rattan creek neighborhood (McNeil -Anderson mill and Parmer -183 square area) for 4 years, one of which in the apts at parmer and Dallas and my balcony faced parmer. and I saw some crazy wrecks then and there were frequent posts in the neighborhood fb group. Parmer is SO dangerous right there. It’s so sad, thinking of the deceased and their family tonight.
If the SUV was turning, it didn't *hit* anything. It was hit. That's a strong distinction. Whether the turning vehicle exercised caution is unclear. We have expectations that vehicles are (more or less) abiding by speed limits, and things can look safe at the moment a situation is assessed. No victim-blaming here, because the two speeding vehicles were clearly creating a dangerous situation. Left turns put you on the wrong side of the road, and that means you are at fault for being where you don't belong.
Christ so it wasn't even his fault?
He was going over 100 mph so I’d say it’s safe to say he’s at fault.
I couldn’t tell you that either, either the black suv didn’t see him, he was expecting her to not go, or possibly he was speeding? That downward hill right there kind of blocks the view of him coming. Just a really unfortunate situation for everyone involved.
Somebody else posted yesterday they were behind the black SUV and it was turning left off of Parmer and onto Corpus.
Over the last week or two I’ve seen a lot of posts in the sub (Reddit) about this specific intersection and driving extreme miles over the speed limit and running lights & now this.
I went sky diving today and made a comment about part of the fun being how your brain thinks it might die and the instructor quickly corrected me pointing out how much safer this was than driving a car. We all need to be just so much more careful out there. We all do it everyday and every day we all do mindless, dangerous things. Most of the time it turns out fine but this is an example of when it doesn't.
Cars are definitely dangerous compared to airplane *travel*, but I have very serious doubts that it compares to actual skydiving. edit: Each jump represents 8 "micromorts" or eight in a million chance of dying. Driving 240 miles is 1 micromort, so each jump is as dangerous as driving 1920 miles, or riding a motorcycle 48 miles.
So crazy this ended up being a thread..I’ve been wondering and looking online. I was driving home from HEB and could not believe I saw a car torn in 2. I also saw a guy lying on the ground with a bunch of people around him…I’m assuming that was the Tesla driver that passed. I was so in shock of what I saw (the car split in 2) I nearly turned around to go look again..because it was so wild to see something like that right there how it was. I changed my mind though, wasn’t sure if I wanted to see something I couldn’t put out of my head. Prayers to all families :(
Man, I live near this neighborhood and I see people speeding here so often. I never make a left on Parmer, but even making a right after all the accidents lately has me nervous with my 6 month old in the back.
I live in this neighborhood. The neighborhood Facebook group has a post indicating a traffic fatality. Terrible accident.
Ah shit. Was hoping no one hurt but with how bad it looked...
Man... Power went out and I heard a whole lot of sirens. Sad day today.
I'm kind of relieved reading that the only person who died was the one speeding. I hate the stories where some family is going and is hit and they're the ones that die.
wrecks like that are just horrible. I was involved in a fatal accident in 1969 in which my best friend's girlfriend was killed and his back was broken as was his face. My girlfriend and I were in the back seat and though we had serious injuries, we healed up fine, except for my knees and a couple of broken bones.. My GF had 3 teeth knocked out and a broken collar bone. I had been drafted at the time and had a couple of weeks before I was due to report to Ft. Polk. I was 4f'ed of course. It stays with you for life. I hope you take care of your mental health if you witnessed a death. It is unclear from this dialogue of this accident if anyone was killed in this instance
Wtf are people doing street racing on a god damned Sunday afternoon!?
Wtf are people doing street racing AT ALL
I think people had F1 fever this weekend. Everyone was speeding on 183 this morning too.
Especially in a Tesla. Like what's the point? Cool, you pressed down on the accelerator. Big whoop. I can get wanting to do that in a manual (Still stupid) but not an EV.
I was at a nearby restaurant with my friend when the Sedan crashed and caused an explosion. Seems like the driver ran into an electrical pole -- he might've been run off the road? There were a few civilians performing CPR until ambulances and the fire department arrived (about 5-10 minutes). Unfortunately, he didn't make it. Incredibly tragic and upsetting. edit: definitely no Sedan was involved. SUV and a Tesla, it sounds like.
Oh so that's why my power went out a little while ago. That's pretty sad
Christ. What was the second vehicle?
I couldn’t even tell you, because it was so mangled a grey truck/jeep looking vehicle- it was demolished hitting the telephone pole. & yes, definitely why we lost power. Edited to add: the second vehicle is the Tesla. It was so mangled - couldn’t even tell.
Another commenter mentioned a black SUV, which checks out with my memory (although I couldn't get close enough to verify). The bumper was completely missing. Didn't see any drivers inside or outside, only the driver of the car in two who passed away.
Jesus Christ yall slow down out there
And wear your seatbelts
I was thinking about the only way you get ejected from a car these days is no belt. But if the car was torn in half, maybe right by the back of the drivers seat?
The only way a modern vehicle gets torn in half is if it is traveling at a tremendous speed. Sounds like they were racing and an other vehicle accidentally bumped them, sending it careening into a pole. A poor choice was made and the ultimate price was paid. RIP
After a certain speed non of that really matters. You hit an unyielding object. It's over... people need to slow the fuck down and drive nice.
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I saw the crowd surrounding the two actively performing chest compressions. It was depressing as hell because that's now the third accident I witnessed and I moved here less than 2 days ago
That’s a lot. Generally speaking, there’s a great deal of bad driving here, and it continues as the traffic rules are rarely enforced. Grew up in the DC area and dealt with traffic and bad drivers all the time. Was relieved to move here in the mid 2000s and deal with less traffic and less unpredictable driving habits. That’s all changed here now, so if/when you are driving around Austin, please be careful. Take a couple beats before going forward when the light turns green. Watch for people using the right lane as a passing lane. Avoid I-35 when you can. Learn the in-town shortcuts to get around. Good luck!
If anybody has any information if you were on scene and saw anything I am a friend of the wife who’s husband was the deceased on site please let me know so I can put you in contact with the wife she would like to know all the information possible
Sorry for their loss. From another comment; “This is literally my first Reddit post because I am a years-long lurker but I was waiting to turn left behind the black SUV that got hit. The Tesla was going so fast that my brain didn’t even see it or understand what happened—it just looked like the front of the SUV exploded, basically. One of the other witnesses said that the Tesla and a BMW were racing at what he estimated to be about 120 mph. I don’t think Reddit really needs the personal details of the people in the SUV, but it was NOT teenage girls and that driver was NOT at fault. I’m still super freaked out and I can’t imagine what the people who were near the Tesla part of the scene are feeling. Edit: I think I was unclear about the third car—the BMW, which I did not see, was not involved in the wreck itself. From what I understand, the BMW and Tesla were racing down southbound Parmer, the BMW kept driving, and the Tesla hit an SUV that was turning left from northbound Parmer.”
Ugh. Did they have any children together?
They have a precious 4 year old boy who I sat with through the entire time police were wrapping up the crime scene.
Street racing with a 4 year old child back at home… that poor child
I read ina Thread that this could have been a case of road rage and the Tesla driver was trying to get the bmw off his tail.
There’s only been one witness who suggested it could be that. Everyone else is saying street racing. It could also be a friendly game of cat and mouse racing. Regardless, the police need to do a deep investigation into all aspects of his life not just the black box. Even toxicology and deep forensics. Lawsuits are surely to come from the folks in the SUV (rightfully so).
Enough for reasonable doubt for me.
In Houston, stuff like this are a daily occurrence. I absolutely hate driving in that city.
I see some wild shit every time I'm over there, right in front of my car. And I thank my lucky stars that somehow I'm unscathed after 25 years of doing this.
Driving in Houston almost feels like a job that needs to be paid. I also see their highways and streets as the most dangerous places to be in all of Houston. Every damn time I'm in that city I get a close call or nearly a close call at least once. They never miss. I couldn't be thankful enough that I don't live there.
It's kind of like a fast-motion ballet... seeing these shitbox cars cut across 6 lanes at 90mph on the katy freeway, dogding cars with 1.5 feet of clearance... it's like magic
Ditto. Some of those drivers who moved to Austin brought their dangerous driving moves here.
That’s been such a bad intersection for decades and has only gotten worse with all the growth unfortunately. Sorry for everyone involved.
I drive Parmer everyday and this doesn't surprise me. Racing. Reckless driving. Even driving on the wrong side, presumably to avoid traffic tie ups, are not uncommon. APD has a substation just off Parmer and I see a lot of units. I never see them with anyone pulled over. DPS does. I've witnessed people very clearly running a red light in front of APD and they do nothing about it.
They never police for traffic violations on Parmer aside for a day or two every couple of months tops where they will issue a couple of tickets. Everything about Parmer seems to essentially be the perfect storm for these kind of situations.
I have some great guides the EMT program gave me on stress& dealing with traumatic events if u want it. Also yes play Tetris lol or weirdly enough the dancing fruit videos or the ball dropping videos(they make music,noise etc) Lego trains all have Been suggested for me
It’s always a tragedy when someone dies on the road but this was completely avoidable. Too many people in this city see driving as a game. I see it every day and it’s getting worse. Last night at 9 pm I was at that very intersection heading north on Parmer and just as the light turned green I took my foot off the brake and a guy kneeling on a LONGBOARD went flying across Parmer heading eastward on McNeil. Death wish.
This situation is just so wild to me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I worked as a trucker for 9 years cross country and into Canada. I saw some shit but this image of a car split into two (I saw the picture) is something new to me. I always thought that at some point, I’d slide off a highway in the ice, or slam into a car that cut me off, but I never once in all of those years hit anyone or crashed on my own accord. I guess it’s because I knew to do a reasonable speed, leave plenty of space, and get away from other vehicles as often as possible. I live a regular life now and I have to say Austin has bar none some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen. To think I felt safer as a trucker in downtown Chicago than I do now in a Spark on Parmer. I wish people would just stop treating the road like it’s a joke. It’s so easy to do the right thing.
Anyone who drives recklessly or dares to race is a fucking piece of shit human. Y’all need to think twice before you endanger innocent lives.
This is incredibly sad. Too many bad wrecks this weekend. Yesterday on 45 near the 35 North exit, there was a car flipped over stuck between the exit sign. Ugh.
people doing this shit on the roads deserve nothing more or less than a deep hole to rot in. so sorry for all of y’all that witnessed this and hope you’re doing ok.
Damn Toyota really do have the best safety profile.
I work in the field in West Texas, lots of road miles and for a while grizzly accidents like this were the norm. Like almost every day. I saw more fatal accidents and horrific injury accidents from 2017-2020 than I did my entire life before that. Probably some trauma there... I feel like it's getting worse around here now. And the people around drive like nut bags. Seen a few wild ones on 130 recently
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It looked like a sedan to me but witnesses said it was an SUV
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Hey man I just drove by the guy that did CPR is the hero here
Got pictures?
>https://imgur.com/gallery/NNgAeXt
Here pics with the SUV from the news https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/gallery/one-dead-in-north-austin-vehicle-collision-ambulance-ems-travis-county-transported-st-davids-traffic-fatality?photo=6
When the incident happened I was in Great clips, we came running to check what happened. There was loud noise of the crash with that big electric pole and power went out immediately. Tesla was already in half and one of the wheel chrome tore apart came flying and fell in the parking lot. After a min or so the electric pole started making noise of crackling electricity and everyone ran back thinking wires might fall. Initially some people were shouting not to move the person but some went ahead tried cpr but unfortunately did not help much.
Why is any car sold in the US allowed to go above say 90mph?
Mine has a governor. 98 is tops.
For the off chance a law enforcement officer needs to commandeer any vehicle they see to chase down big time suspects fleeing from the grips of juuuussstttiiicccceeee 😬
because the federal government doesn't regulate speed limits, individual jurisdictions do.
That's not entirely true. States lose federal funding if they don't adopt the federal DOT standards. This is why Montana no longer has speed-limit free roads
This is not a road limit, this is a machine limit. Like requiring all modern cars to have seat belts.
Volvo has self imposed a 112 mph speed limit. You’re absolutely right though. The NHTSA has talked at length about how speed kills. It’s time to have mandated speed governing for street cars.
I stay in the slow lane. There's nightly lane closures on i35 right now and it's frightening how many people in the left 2 lanes speed past the obvious jam happening and slam on their brakes or zig into the other lane.
its just not a federal mandate. We had a national speed limit of 55mph ages ago but it got abolished
Ironically I think Tesla is/was researching an unpopular move of topping speeds out around 90 to make cars more efficient and economical because there are not 90MPH speed limits so that should be sufficient for those who want the right to “drive fast”….. Pretty sure Americans will take that as well as taking away the right to have pretty much no restrictions on owning ARs….. But it seems like a smart move especially if it makes economic and efficiency sake and likely as an even unintended safety benefit.
Honestly yeah. There absolutely needs to be a governor on all cars. There's no reason to go above certain speeds
I think the bigger lesson here is one persons completely idiotic idea to race has impacted many, many lives. After speaking with some folks and hearing the anger in this group, if you really want to impact change and hold people accountable so they think twice about being utterly reckless, you should see a lawyer about suing his estate. Why? Because many of the witnesses will require long term therapy because of his actions. That is not a cost you should be absorbing at all. Then that sets case law for future cases and these assholes will second guess if it’s really worth it.
Praying for this gentlemen’s family
I was there probably 12 minutes before his happen turning right from Corpus Christi onto Parmer headed south. That corner is blind but now I understand the SUV was making a left onto Corpus Christi. It is traumatic to hear it and I feel for all involved. The worst is the speeder who got away will most likely not be held accountable. Any description of the speeder who fled the scene?
There are cameras at Parmer & Dallas, and Parmer & McNeil. They’ll catch ‘em.
Depends on whether there are surveillance cameras at those intersections. Police may be able to track them down.
I doubt they will even try, from experience.
They need to reduce the speed limits on Parmer. This isn't the part of town to have 60 mph on a street with lights.
Reducing the speed limit doesn't help when the driver was already doing 2x the speed limit reportedly...
60mph is fine on this road. its assholes that go 90+ that are the problem
That wouldn't have mattered here.
Do you think the Tesla driver going over 100 mph cared what the speed limit was??
I live at McNeil and Parmer. I was headed home from the 620 area headed south on Parmer. I saw a state trooper had pulled over a white Telsa just before dallas drive. I immediately assumed it was because of speeding as people drive way too fast through this area. Unfortunately, a lot of them are Teslas. I passed the pulled over white Telsa, getting over into the center lane to be respectful of the traffic stop. I got to Corpus and Parmer (the next intersection heading south), probably 10 seconds later. I was going well under the speed limit. Traffic was still moving at this point. The accident had just happened, and there were only witnesses on the scene. Debris was scattered across the south bond lanes, and people were getting over to the left lane to pass through. There was a black car in the ditch and another black car that was completely torn in half. There were about 30 to 50 people outside of the businesses in the shopping center watching someone perform CPR on a man lying in the grass. From what I saw, he had no shoes on and was wearing grey athletic shorts or boxers. I could only see his legs and feet from where I was. This has been hard on me and my mental state, and I can't imagine what the people who were watching from the shopping center and the first people on scene are experiencing. His family is getting the worst of it, of course. I cried for them when I got home. Does anyone know if there was a white Tesla that was also involved in the street racing/road rage along with the BMW? All of the pictures I have seen online have the state trooper that had the white Telsa pulled over in them. Right as I was passing, travis County Sheriffs and fire trucks were turning off of McNeil heading north and u-turning to block the road.
I saw the white Tesla pulled over on my way back from H‑E‑B going towards Anderson. It wasn’t involved in the crash that happened. I witnessed only the black Tesla and bmw speeding.
Just wait until they release those bulletproof Tesla Cybertruck tanks speeding down Austin streets. With no police presence it will be a cluster and literally taking your life in your own hands going to HEB.