Austin Teen is Fourth Person to Die after SXSW DUI Accident
Austin, TX- Austin police said that a fourth person who was struck by a drunk driver at SXSW has died. DeAndre Tatum, 18, or Austin succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the tragedy on Thursday.
Tatum had been in a medically induced coma since the March 13th drunk driving accident, and was one of the last accident victims in critical condition. The other critically injured victim, Sandy Thuy Le, 26, died on March 17th.
According to USA Today, Tatum suffered from a broken arm, a broken pelvis and a brain injury. He was among the accident victims Dr. Christopher Ziebell UMC Brackenridge was worried about.
In a press conference after the accident, Dr. Christopher Ziebell said, “The most critical patients I have a great deal of concern for.” He added, “We are going to do our best for them, but these are some of the worst injuries that we see and not everybody with these kinds of injuries is going to survive.”
Two people, Jamie West, 27, of Austin, and Steven Craenmehr, 35, of Amsterdam were killed the night of the accident.
Tatum was attending a venue at the Mohawk Club with his girlfriend, 19 year-old Curtisha Davis. Davis was also injured but was released from the hospital last week and returned to her North Texas home.
Rashad Owens, 21, was intoxicated when he went a rampage down the Red River Street which was closed to traffic. Owens was allegedly trying to avoid a sobriety checkpoint when a police officer initiated a pursuit.
Owens then headed in the wrong direction down Ninth Street when he arrived at Red River Street. He went through barricades on the street and barreled through the large crowd. He drove wildly down the street striking dozens of pedestrians. Some witnesses said it appeared as though Owens purposely ran over the people gathered on the street. Other witnesses said Owens was driving at speeds of up to 70 mph, though that has not been confirmed by police.
Owens then left Red River Street and entered 11th Street where he struck Craenmehr and West. He would have likely continued trying to elude police if he had not run into two parked vehicles. After crashing
A total of 22 people were injured, but only 7 required hospitalization.
The tragedy did not stop SXSW, which attracts tens of thousands of people to Austin each year. aSnd the victims were honored by some of the festival’s more well-known guests including Lady Gaga, who paid tribute to them during the encore of her concert.
Owens was initially charged with two counts of capital murder which carries the death penalty and over 20 counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle. In light of Tatum’s deant
This is a most extreme case of drunk driving and while it causes a large fraction for fatal crashes across the country. Many of the individuals who are charged with DUI don’t cause harm to others and need to contact a DUI attorney if they want any hope of reducing their charges and negating the worst penalties.