Car crashes, kills woman under I-35 overpass

Austin Police put up yellow police line tape and blocked off the Cesar Chavez/I-35 intersection Thursday morning while they investigated a tragic death under the overpass.

"Approximately 8:36 this morning the officers received a call of a crash/hot shot saying that several pedestrians had been hit," said Austin Police Lt. James Nisula.

Nisula says at least 2 vehicles collided in the intersection.  A van jumped the curb and ended up in the grass under I-35.

"One driver was here at the scene and the second driver went a short distance, stopped and called 911," Nisula said.

Police say both of the drivers are ok. 

The van drove into a group of people under the road.

Austin Travis County EMS tweeted the 2 injured were in their 50's and refused a trip to the hospital.

A third person didn't survive.

"Approximately 10 minutes after officers received the call at 8:46, a female, appears to be in her late 40's, was pronounced deceased on scene," Nisula said.

Lt. Nisula says there are people under that bridge on a typical morning.  As officers worked the scene Thursday he told us it was too early to know if the victims are homeless.

"It was somebody under the bridge.  I don't know if they were standing, laying or sitting at this point," he said. 

"Well there's usually a campsite over here and there's people just sitting around drinking beer, eating and making trash," said David Montoya who has lived in the area for decades.  He's hoping someone will do something about that spot.

"I hate to use a situation like that to point out to the fact that this place probably needs to be fenced in to keep people from camping underneath the bridge," Montoya said.

Austin Police told us this morning it was too early to talk about any charges for the drivers and police have not yet released the name of the woman who was killed.
               
By the way TxDOT says the spot is theirs.  They clean it and maintain it but of course it's up to law enforcement to address any issue of people being under the bridge.