Project Summary:
This story is part of KXAN’s “Preventing Disaster” investigation, which initially published on May 15, 2024. The project follows a fatal car crash into an Austin hospital’s emergency room earlier that year. Our team took a broader look at safety concerns with that crash and hundreds of others across the nation – including whether medical sites had security barriers – known as bollards – at their entrances. Experts say those could stop crashes from happening.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new billed filed in direct response to a KXAN investigation , would require security barriers, called bollards, at Texas emergency room entrances.
On Thursday, State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, filed Senate Bill 660 just ahead of the next legislative session. It would require crash-rated bollards , or another similar safety barrier, at existing and future emergency rooms that are “located near an area with a vehicular traffic.”
The goal: “to prevent a motor vehicle from crashing into an emergency room.” It’s a direct response to a KXAN investigation into the Feb. 13 deadly crash at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, which killed the driver and injured five, including the Bernard family.