Well, damn. CNN reports:
An intoxicated driver fleeing police plowed his car into a crowd at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, killing two people, authorities said early Thursday. The man and woman killed were riding their light motorcycles, said Art Acevedo, chief of the Austin Police Department. At least 23 others were hospitalized, some with multiple internal injuries. A suspect is in custody and faces two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault by vehicle, Acevedo said. Before the incident, the man was driving the wrong direction on a one-way street. Authorities attempted to stop the car, but it sped off, almost hitting an officer, according to Acevedo. The car later ran into the crowd. “It looked like something out of a movie,” said Russ Barone, who was at the festival. “A few people lying on the street … with their friends around them trying to get them up, trying to get them back to life. Hopefully, they are.” He said the scene was grisly, with people bleeding in the streets. “I’ve never seen nothing like it. I felt like I was at a war or something,” Barone said. “I was down here for the music … we were having the best time ever. And then it turned into the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” Pablo Vazquez was also at the event when the suspect drove past him. “The car barely missed me … I was less than a foot away,” Vazquez told CNN’s New Day. “I saw some folks die.” It kept moving forward, swerving to hit victims and and even ramming into a taxi at one point, he said.
To say this is sad would be an gross understatement, because feel free to talk to the family of any of the victims ask them how closure is gonna go after their loved ones were killed by an easily preventable tragedy. That’s why it’s hard to correct someone when they attempt to reconcile their pain and loss by saying it “was God’s plan”. You’d probably want to believe anything at that point. But, it wasn’t God’s plan, it was some drunk idiot who decided to get behind the wheel and flee police and now he’s responsible for two deaths and twenty-three injuries. That’s all that happened as fucked up as that is. Any other explanation would dishonor the victims and indirectly absolve this moron. So hug somebody you love today, or better yet, hug somebody you don’t. They may need it just as badly.
