Deadly car crashes in San Marcos hit a record in 2019
The yearly average is also up for fatal car crashes: Between 2014 and 2019, the city had about six deadly accidents a year.
SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) — “He was kind of the person that would bright up a room. He always had jokes,” remembers Jordon Johnson.
Johnson and Brandon Gutierrez met while working at a San Marcos auto shop in 2017.
“Me and him pretty much hit it off pretty quick,” Johnson says.
Soon, the two were playing basketball, working out and making plans.
But it was all cut short in September.
“I got a call from his wife at 4:30 in the morning,” Johnson recalls.
Gutierrez had died in a motorcycle accident.
“I didn’t know how to process it. I didn’t know how to think of: I had just seen him the day before and I was planning on seeing him that weekend. It didn’t occur to me that that wasn’t going to happen,” Johnson says.
His friend’s death was one of about a dozen in the city.
“It’s the one thing probably that nobody wants to do is to tell somebody that their loved one’s been killed in an accident,” says San Marcos Assistant Police Chief Brandon Winkenwerder.
But officers have had to have that conversation more times this year than any other recent year:
- 2018: 4 fatal car crashes in San Marcos
- 2017: 6
- 2016: 5
- 2015: 2
“It’s been seven years since we had a spike,” Winkenwerder says.
In 2012, the city saw 13 fatal crashes.
Winkenwerder hopes the number doesn’t represent a long-term trend.
“We’re kind of assuming it’s an anomaly and we’re going to wait to see what next year holds and hopefully that number comes back down to what the average is or drops,” he says.
He says the yearly average is also up for fatal car crashes: Between 2014 and 2019, the city had about six deadly accidents a year.
The five years before that, the average was closer to four crashes a year.
Winkenwerder and Johnson urge drivers to be careful as they cruise into 2020.
“Even if you’re just a little bit tired or a little bit out of it, don’t get on your bike, it’s just not worth it,” Johnson says.
Austin’s fatal accidents
At least 34 people have died in crashes involving automobiles and pedestrians.
The latest: Austin police have now identified a man killed Sunday on Dessau Road at Braker Lane.
This was Austin’s 85th deadly traffic crash this year, resulting in 87 deaths.
Last year at this time – there were 72 deadly traffic crashes and 73 deaths.