A 44-year-old man is dead after an early morning automobile accident Sunday at the intersection of 7th Street and Springdale Road in East Austin.

Police said the accident occurred when a white Chevy Impala ran a red light and struck a silver Nissan Sentra around 3:30 a.m.

According to police, passengers from both vehicles fled the scene on foot. According to responders, the man who died was riding in the Sentra. He was transported to University Medical Center at Brackenridge with life threatening injuries. He was later pronounced dead.

Police said it is the 51st traffic fatality of 2008 and are asking anyone with information to call 974-8212.

A woman and her two children were injured Sunday morning in a car accident in which her infant was ejected from the rolling car.

The accident happened about 7:30 a.m. in the 6900 block of Texas 121, just west of Handley Ederville Road. The car left the roadway and struck a drainage ditch, then a light pole, which sent the vehicle rolling, police said in a news release.

The woman’s 6-month-old daughter was ejected, but her 3-year-old son was taken to the hospital remained in the vehicle, possibly suffering internal injuries, the release said.

The woman and the infant were taken to the hospital by air ambulance. The family’s names were not released Sunday, and their conditions weren’t available.

The release did not say whether the infant was in a child safety seat or whether the 3-year-old was taken to the hospital.

A Dallas police officer arrested an on-duty Dallas Fire Rescue captain early Sunday while they worked the same major accident.

DPD Sgt. Gil Cerda confirmed the arrest happened at about 4 a.m. after the officer and the rescuer arrived at the scene of a major accident near the intersection of North Stemmons Freeway and Walnut Hill Lane.

The officer alleged DFR Cpt. Kenneth Davis questioned him about his response time. He began to walk away when Harris poked him in the chest, Cerda said.

Davis was arrested and charged with offensive contact, a misdemeanor charge. He was issued a citation and booked in jail.

Two separate accidents within the span of an hour Friday night blocked traffic on two highways at length in Hunt County.

There were no life-threatening injuries in either accident, according to Department of Public Safety trooper Gina Stone, the investigating officer.

The first accident was reported at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Highway 34, south of Farm Road 2101 on the bridge that spans Dry Caddo Creek, Stone said.

She added that she and an ambulance had just crossed the bridge following their response to a previous accident.

A truck traveling south-bound on the highway crossed over into the north-bound lane and struck the left side of a car going north on the highway, Stone said. The force of the impact spun the car around and wound up blocking both lanes of traffic.

The collision left the car’s woman driver trapped in the vehicle, Stone said. She was removed from the vehicle an hour later by responding firefighters.

Both she and the male driver of the truck, who are from the Quinlan area, were taken by ambulance to Hunt Regional Medical Center in Greenville as a precautionary measure, the trooper added.

While the traffic was blocked, there was a minor collision in the south-bound lane, Stone said. There were no injuries in the secondary accident and damage was minor.

About 30 minutes after the first accident, Stone was dispatched to a one-vehicle accident in the west-bound lane of Interstate 30 east of Greenville.

Six family members were in a SUV with an attached camper when the camper began swaying and flipped on its side, the trooper said. The pull of the camper caused the SUV crash into a highway barricade, she added.

The SUV and camper blocked in the interstate lane for about an hour, the trooper said, and traffic was diverted to the service road.

While there were no injuries from the accident, Stone said the family was taking a little girl to the hospital at the time. Family members told the trooper the girl had burned her hand while they were camping.

The family was transported to the hospital, where the girl was treated for her injury.

A woman and her two children were involved in a single-car accident on Highway 121 in Richland Hills early Sunday.

According to police reports, the accident happened around 7:30 a.m. in the 6900 block of Hwy. 121.

Police said the female driver in her 20s was driving with her two young children when she left the roadway, struck a drainage ditch and a light poll and then flipped the car.

The woman’s 6-month-old daughter was ejected from the vehicle. Her 3-year-old son remained in the vehicle, but suffered possible internal injuries. Rescuers also had to cut the woman from the wreckage.

All three people were transported to local hospitals with unknown conditions.

Police closed the highway from three hours following the accident.

Houston, Texas police say a 13-year-old boy apparently pretending to be strangled by a seat belt died when he got tangled in the safety device.

Police spokesman Victor Senties (sen-TEE’-us) on Tuesday said the child’s death appears to have been an accident.

The name of the victim was not immediately released. Autopsy results are pending.

Senties told The Associated Press that the boy and a friend Monday night were riding in the back seat of a vehicle, being driven by the friend’s mother, in northwest Houston.

Senties says the victim wrapped a seat belt around his neck, pretending he was being strangled, when he started “choking for real, apparently he got tangled up in the seat belt.”

Police say the woman managed to free the teen, who was transported to a Houston hospital and pronounced dead.

A Grand Saline couple died Sunday morning when their car ran off the road in Denton. Police say Dean Tidwell, 47, was driving south on North Loop 288 in Denton when the Jaguar he was driving slid into the median. The car then flipped and rolled several times ejecting both Tidwell and the only passenger, his wife, Marsha Tidwell, also 47 years old.

The couple reportedly passed a witness just moments before the accident happened. Both husband and wife were pronounced dead on the scene. Police say neither was wearing a seat belt. The exact cause of the accident remains under investigation although there was reportedly no evidence of alcohol involved.

Source: mywesttexas.com

A sixth bus accident occurred at approximately 11 a.m.  Monday in the 3400 block of Andrews Highway.

No one was injured and there were no one was on board except the driver and bus monitor, Midland ISD Communications Director Woodrow Bailey said. The bus had just dropped secondary students off at the Advanced Technology Center.

Midland Police Department Public Information Officer Tina Jauz said a Toyota Tacoma truck was eastbound on Andrews Highway with a school bus following behind. The vehicles approached the light at Alpine Street, the light turned red, the truck stopped and the bus rear-ended it, Jauz said.

No one was injured or transported to the hospital. Bus driver Herman Jefferson was cited for following too closely.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance David Garcia said the bus accidents have all been minor, so there is no indication of an insurance rate increase.

Bus accidents since the beginning of the school year:

- Sept. 9: Midland ISD bus driver Susan Spear, 50, was arrested on three counts of driving while intoxicated with child and cited for following too closely following a bus accident around 7:43 a.m. near the intersection of Midkiff and Golf Course roads. Bailey said Monday that Spear is still on administrative leave. She is represented by attorney Edward T. Garza.

- The week of Sept. 8-12: a second accident occurred in Midland County.

- Sept. 16: bus/car accident occurred at 7:54 a.m. at Loop 250 near the I-HOP restaurant at the Garfield Street exit. A 2000 Ford Focus was rear-ended.

-Sept. 16: On Loop 250 near Grande Stadium, a bus with no passengers was in an accident. Communications Director Woodrow Bailey said the driver was not ticketed.

Sept. 22: A bus carrying 22 Alamo Junior High volleyball players, plus the coach, collided with a car at 4:45 p.m. at Andrews Highway and Midland Drive. No one was injured. The driver was cited for making an improper turn.

Charges have been filed against a motorist arrested in a fatal traffic accident in the 9200 block of the South Freeway (State Highway 288 South) about 12:15 a.m. on Sunday (Oct. 19).

The suspect, Francisco J. Morales (H/m, DOB: 2-12-85) is charged with manslaughter in the 183rd State District Court.

The female victim, 23, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identity is pending notification to family members by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.

HPD Vehicular Crimes Division Sergeant D. Morgan and Officer A. Alaniz reported:

Witnesses saw a tan and blue Ford F-150 pickup truck traveling northbound on State Highway 288 swerving in and out of traffic at a very high rate of speed. The driver (Morales) of the Ford sideswiped a gray Oldsmobile, lost control of the truck and veered to the left. The truck then went across the median onto the southbound lanes of Highway 288 where it struck a gray Chrysler 300, with two females inside, on the driver’s side. The Chrysler was pushed from the roadway and down an incline to the service road, where it caught fire. One of the females in the Chrysler was pulled from the vehicle by witnesses and transported to Ben Taub General Hospital. The other female, the driver, was pronounced dead.

Source dallasnews.com

A Dallas, Texas police officer responding from one call to another was driving over the speed limit by 29 mph when his police car fatally struck a 10-year-old, according to police officials with knowledge of the investigation.

Senior Cpl. Michael Vaughn, a five-year veteran, was going 69 mph when he struck Cole Berardi on his bike on a dark portion of Belt Line Road in southeast Dallas, said police officials who asked that their names not be published. Cpl. Vaughn’s lights and siren were not activated as required.

Video shot by the camera mounted in Cpl. Vaughn’s car shows that one second passed between when Cole became visible to the officer and when he was struck, the sources said.

Traffic experts say a motorist needs at least 1.5 seconds to recognize and react to an obstacle in the roadway.

Authorities are conducting a “time and distance study” to determine whether traveling at the speed limit of 40 mph would have given Cpl. Vaughn the time to react and avoid hitting Cole. The study is expected to be completed by Wednesday.

“At 69 mph, it’s not physically possible to see, make a conscious decision, take your foot off the gas and turn the steering wheel,” said one police official close to the investigation. “If you’re going 40, could you have done that? Probably not, but that’s the whole point of the time and distance study.”

Cpl. Vaughn’s accident comes on the heels of other controversial driving incidents involving officers.

Last month, an officer was severely injured as he raced more than 20 miles at speeds topping 100 mph to catch up to a police chase. He was not authorized to participate in that chase.

Twenty-one officers, including the injured officer, are under investigation for driving excessive speeds without authorization in that incident. The incident also prompted Police Chief David Kunkle to appoint a review panel to look at how officers respond to emergencies.

Brett Inman, Cole’s stepfather, said Monday that the family planned to consult with an attorney later this week about the accident that took his son’s life.

“Cole was the most amazing kid that you would ever have wanted to meet,” Mr. Inman said. “He was such a sweetheart.”

Assistant Chief Charles Cato also said he could not comment on the accident because police are awaiting the results of the preliminary investigation.

Cpl. Vaughn is likely to be placed on restricted duty. It is not clear at this point what, if any, discipline he will face and it is also likely the incident will be referred to a grand jury for review. State law does not allow officers to drive above the speed limit without activating their lights and sirens.

The accident happened about 7:30 p.m. Friday. Cole had asked his mother if he could ride his bike to a nearby store, where a friend worked.

“Cole was told not to leave the house, but he snuck out while his mother was in the bathroom,” Mr. Inman said.

As he headed out on his green bicycle along the pitch-black road, Cpl. Vaughn and another officer were following each other with Cpl. Vaughn in the lead. The in-car video shows Cole, who was not wearing a helmet, cut across the curved street just north of Kleburg Road.

Cole reached the middle of the four-lane road as another car passed, headed the opposite direction. “He’s looking at that car, not the squad car,” said the police official with knowledge of the investigation.

The left front of the squad car struck Cole, sending him flying into the driver’s side door.

The force knocked the spotlight off the car. Cole landed 50 or 60 feet away on the shoulder.

Cpl. Vaughn knew he had hit something but did not realize immediately that he had hit a person, police said.

Video from the second car reportedly shows Cpl. Vaughn stopped his vehicle, made a U-turn and then came back. The two officers tried to revive Cole, but he died several hours later at a local hospital.

Police officials say two street lights near the point of impact were not working at the time of the accident.

Oncor officials confirmed Monday that they received a report Sunday about the street light outages along Belt Line Road, near where the accident occurred.

They found nine outages on the 1.5-mile stretch of Belt Line Road between Highway 175 and Foothill Road. The bulbs were replaced Monday.