San Marcos drivers had a rough time of it making their way around town and home on Wednesday, as on-again, off-again rain showers continued all day. A bout of heavier rainfall coincided with the afternoon rush hour.
Overall, the city fared well, however. According to Assistant Police Chief Brandon Winkenwerter, there were a slew of fender-benders but no accidents causing significant injury.
Although the reports of vehicle crashes started coming in early on Wednesday, he said there was a “big uptick” between 1 and 5 p.m., after which things started to calm down.
“All of those accident calls were coming in that very short period of time,” he said, adding that at times, it seemed like crash-related calls were the only things going.
According to the online police blotter, officers responded to a dozen accidents between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday and another 10 between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday. Though a handful of those were classified as injury accidents, no one was hurt badly.
That said, the day did present some challenges for police.
The low-water bridge over the Blanco River at Post Road, which normally spans a mostly dry stretch, was over water all the way. Several of the county’s low-water crossing were closed on Thursday morning. Daily Record photoby Denise Cathey
“Generally on days like that we all kind of band together,” he said, with all officers out on the streets responding, even if traffic isn’t their primary assignment. “Our motor guys are working accidents, out patrol guys are working accidents. If there’s a detective out and he rolls out on one he’ll do what he can.” Winkenwerter said 911 operators try to cut down on repsonses by screening calls for things like injury or damage to infrastructure, advising some involved in minor collisions to exchange insurance information with the other party themselves rather than involve police. “Generally very minor acidents can be done peron to person. There’s no requirement that police be involved, only a requirement that insurance information be exchanged.” He added that motorists can download the “blue form” required.
“Some folks need to be walked through the process. Some folks have never been in an accident and don’t know.”
He said the rain’s timing was fortunate in that Texas State University students are still out of town. “We weren’t inundated with a whole lot of other calls for service” during the rain, he said.
The SMPD’s guiding philosophy when it comes to traffic is to help, he said. “It may not be your normal job function, but you’re going to take care of people when that kind of stuff happens.”
The coming months are bound to include more heavy-accident days, and Winkenwerter said he’s not looking forward to the possibility of ice. “I hope we don’t get any. Those are rough days.”
