Car flips, crashes into historic Austin cemetery

AUSTIN, Texas - The car came out of the darkness heading north on San Bernard Street and video from a home's Nest door camera recorded how the car moved past at a high rate of speed and crash into an iron fence at 14th st.

Shelia Trembay on Tuesday afternoon showed her son the midnight crash their camera recorded.

"And there’s nowhere for it to go, it just hits the embankment flips over and lands on some irreplaceable headstones from the 1800s," said Trembay.

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An orange mesh fence closed off the area that was damaged when the car smashed into Oakwood Cemetery. Headstones dating back to 1872 were broken. "It’s sad we just got a really nice fence around it, it has so much history, it’s just sad," said Trembay.

The site was secured on Tuesday morning.

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"It's very heart-wrenching and very concerning and sad for the families," said Tonja Walls-Davis, who is the division manager for cemetery operations for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. 

Walls-Davis says that several people with family buried in the cemetery came out after seeing news reports about the crash. While damage is limited to a small section, Walls-Davis worried if they can find a living family member to notify. "It's very difficult to find them, at this point, we are going to do our best to find some type of heirs, to this lot.," said Walls-Davis.

Late Tuesday afternoon, officials with Save Austin's Cemeteries announced they located the family that is connected to a cemetery plot that was damaged. They say that they will try to help the family make repairs.

Marks in the roadway show where the car broke through the fencing. Austin police say the driver, and any occupants in the car fled the scene.

"I am totally amazed that he ran away from the scene for sure," said Trembay.