News

Officials: EMS Calls High, Coverage Improved at SXSW

Julie Chang

03/17/2014

March 18--Austin-Travis County EMS officials said emergency workers had fewer problems at South by Southwest than they did last year, while Austin police made dozens of arrests downtown during the 10-day event that ended over the weekend.

Three people were killed and nearly two dozen were injured early Thursday when police said a driver fleeing police ignored barricades and plowed through a crowd on Red River Street. Police Chief Art Acevedo said last week that the department will reassess procedures used to block off streets during special events.

According to preliminary data from the downtown sector between March 7 and March 16, police charged 22 people with driving while intoxicated, 45 for public intoxication, four for aggravated assault and 66 for theft. It was not known how many of those events were related to SXSW, and police and city official declined to release any other data from the event until an after action report was conducted. The city said it does not have a timeline for the report.

EMS officials said that calls for service to the agency were about the same as last year, when a 25 percent spike in call volume was reported. Medics used motorcycles and Polaris all terrain vehicles this year to better access patients in the congested downtown festival area and bring them to a collection point at Fifth and Brazos streets. Two ambulances were assigned to the event, officials said, and no other ambulance resources from other parts of the city were used other than during Thursday's fatal crash.

"This year's management of South by Southwest was more efficient, more effective, more streamlined for the special event and the citizens and community of Austin-Travis County as a whole," said EMS spokesman Mike Benavides.

Before the start of SXSW, police also said they planned to make some changes, bumping up the number of officers working the festival between 15 percent to 20 percent, especially to help with pedestrian safety.

Police are looking into a large fight on Sixth Street during SXSW that was captured on video and posted to YouTube over the weekend. The nearly two-minute video shows several people grabbing, pulling, punching and kicking each other on East Sixth Street between Neches and Red River streets.

Police also cracked down on parking violations near Capital Metro's Lakeline MetroRail park and ride lot over the weekend. CapMetro spokeswoman Francine Pares said police told them 18 cars were towed Friday and that some were towed Thursday. The cars were blocking the roadway along Lyndhurst Street, adjacent to the parking lot, Pares said.

Some lengthy lines were reported at the downtown MetroRail station, mostly during the late afternoon and evening hours, but train hours were expanded and they ran more frequently.

Pares said that the feedback has been that people enjoyed the new MetroRapid bus service, the expanded late-night bus service until 3 a.m., and the mobile application used to buy and use bus tickets.

"We got a lot of people downtown and back safely and conveniently," Pares said.

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Notable SXSW weekend arrests

--Police arrested 20-year-old Bernard Johnson on Saturday after officials said he assaulted an officer as police tried to break up a fight outside of the Moose Knuckle Pub near Trinity and East Sixth streets.

--David Walker, 21, was arrested on East Sixth Street early Sunday after several people said he was carrying a loaded gun, according to an arrest affidavit. It said that he is a gang member and that witnesses said he was going to shoot someone.

--Tyler, the Creator, a rapper whose real name is Tyler Gregory Okonma, was arrested over the weekend on a charge of trying to incite a riot. The incident happened Thursday at the Scoot Inn, 1308 E. Fourth St., where the 23-year-old was playing to a capacity crowd. While on stage, an arrest affidavit said, he began yelling at people outside of the venue to push their way past security.