Motorcyclist Dies In City's 100th Traffic Fatality

Austin has reached a grim milestone--its 100th traffic fatality--after a motorcyclist died trying to avoid colliding with a truck in the northern part of the city Wednesday night.

Austin-Travis County EMS officials responded to the 2700 block of Steck Avenue at around 7:30 p.m., where a motorcyclist had slid his bike on the pavement in attempts to circumvent a pickup truck backing out of a driveway.

The motorcyclist succumbed to his injuries and died on the scene. Emergency officials said the victim, a man in his 30s, was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

Steck Avenue was temporarily closed off between MoPac and Burnet Road as police cleared the scene.

The fatality marked the 100th traffic death in the ever-congested city, making this year the deadliest on Austin roads. It was also the third traffic fatality in Austin to occur in just one day.

Early Wednesday, police responded to a crash on Interstate 35 between Braker Lane and VFW Road where a rollover accident claimed the life of a motorist in the northbound highway lane.

Some four hours earlier, at 2:20 a.m., emergency personnel responded to the intersection of Barton Springs Road and Kinney Avenue, where a woman had crashed her vehicle into a tree. The Austin American-Statesman later identified the victim as 35-year-old Gina Mendez-Jew, lead singer of the Austin-based heavy rock band Tombstone Union.

Mendez-Jew was transported to University Medical Center Brackenridge, but succumbed to her injuries after arriving at the hospital.