Man And His Dog Hit By Vehicle In East Austin

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- A man and his dog were hit by a car in East Austin on Friday night, sending the man to the hospital and the animal to a veterinary clinic.

The accident on March 4 occurred at about 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of 7th and Comal streets. A spokesman for Austin-Travis County EMS told KVUE-TV that the vehicle involved is an SUV.

The pedestrian hit is a man in his 60s who continues to be treated for critical, life-threatening injuries at University Medical Center-Brackenridge. His dog was taken to Central Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital.

Further details were unavailable.

This is just the latest incident of a pedestrian being hit by a vehicle in just the last few months, sometimes with a fatal aftermath.

Often, such incidents occur in fast-gentrifying parts of the city, older and established neighborhoods where residents now must contend with increased traffic to which they're unaccustomed. The bolstered activity comes amid a growing abundance of new luxury apartments, bars and restaurants in now-trendy neighborhoods appealing to members of a different demographic.

In East Austin, for example, commercial developers in the last few years have responded to a new influx of residents drawn to the sector’s quirky nature and eclectic neighborhoods. For upper-income residents moving to East Austin, the site also offers proximity to the central business district.

Not all such pedestrian-involved accidents occur in East Austin. But incidences appear to be on the rise, with bolstered traffic and inebriated motorists at times attributable.

Some neighborhoods with changing demographics remain poorly lighted -- a status shedding light not on the streets, but on the inattention by city officials to illuminate such neighborhoods as is population grows with the new resident influx.

A combination of those factors -- exacerbated at times by driver and pedestrian inattention -- is taking a deadly toll on city streets:

• On Jan. 1 in South Austin, a man in his 20s was hospitalized for treatment of life-threatening injuries after being hit by a car in the 10200 block of FM 812, just south of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
• Again in East Austin, a man was hit and killed by a vehicle just before midnight on Jan. 4. The man’s lifeless body was found by first responders in the 14300 block of Sandifer, the driver who hit him nowhere in sight in the hit-and-run occurrence.
• On Jan. 14, a 23-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle -- again in East Austin. She was hit by a vehicle traveling westbound in the 4800 block of East Riverside Drive as she walked along a crosswalk.
• On Jan. 24 downtown, another pedestrian, a man in his 20s, was hit by a car in the early morning hours along Iinterstate 35 near 51st Street. He was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

• On Jan. 30, in North Austin, a wheelchair-bound man was struck and killed while trying to cross the street at the 12300 block of North Lamar Boulevard. The 65-year-old man died of his injuries four days later.

• In East Austin on Feb. 10, a man in his 40s was struck and killed by a Capital Metro bus at the 1800 block of Celeste Circle. The site near Heflin Land and Martin Luther King Boulevard was reportedly poorly lighted at the time of the time, visibility made worse given the dark clothing the man was wearing at the time of his death.
• On Feb. 14 -- St. Valentine's Day -- a woman in her 30s was pronounced dead at the scene in the 700 block of Montopolis Drive. In that case, the driver who hit the woman stayed until police arrived and cooperated with their investigation.

The Austin Police Department has taken notice of the deadly toll.

APD officials recently announced plans to ask city council members to expand its anti-loitering ordinance to include road shoulders and intersections, citing the high number of hit pedestrians. APD officials said about 30 pedestrians were hit last year, citing that grim statistic as the motive for passing the expanded anti-loitering safeguard.

But the move seems more of a punitive effort to rid city corners of panhandling homeless people rather than an initiative to protect pedestrians from the often dark streets in some corners of Austin.

In the end, the law enforcement-led action might provide heat, but without anyone else in the city providing needed light.