Witness describes seeing truck 'fly over the fence' on icy Slaughter Lane
Andrew Paz was walking his dog on an unusually wintry Tuesday afternoon when he says a truck started skidding on a Slaughter Lane overpass.
“They definitely hit black ice. He didn’t even look like he was speeding or anything like that,” Paz said.
And Paz says he couldn’t believe what happened next.
“Then he flies over the fence and just drops down, I’m like ‘that didn’t happen, that didn’t just happen,’” Paz said.
“It lost control and went over the guard rail. It fell approximately 30 to 40 feet,” said Sgt. Clemens with Austin Police.
Paz started doing a Facebook Live. He ran through the brush and found some people, including a law enforcement officer, already trying to help.
“They were trying to already break the glass, get the door to open or something and they were talking to the people in the accident to see if they were alive,” Paz said.
“We found one patient to be out of the vehicle, the other patient was actually pinned in the vehicle. That required extrication just to get to that victim to make an assessment of that victim,” said Captain Darren Noak with Austin-Travis County EMS.
Police say the driver was taken to St. David’s with critical injuries. The passenger, who was pinned, was pronounced dead on scene. Austin-Travis County EMS says both men were in their 30’s or 40’s.
“About 30 minutes prior to this crash we did have another pickup that lost control and spun out on the bridge and again that appeared to be weather-related,” Sgt. Clemens said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday Austin Police briefed the press on the investigation.
“I do not have an update on the other person transported and their condition at this time. I will also not be releasing the names of those involved in the crash at this time. We are waiting for procedures like next of kin and things like that to be notified,” said APD officer Destiny Winston.
At one point in the video, Paz makes a plea to his friends.
“Slow down. Nobody is indestructible, it doesn’t matter if you have a 3-ton pickup truck, that will slide too it does not matter,” Paz said.