One Person Is Dead and Two Are Injured After a Crash That Closed Northbound MoPac at Steck Avenue
Austin police closed every northbound lane of MoPac at Steck Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. APD Watch Command confirmed the critically injured patient died at the hospital; the lanes have since reopened.
AUSTIN — A Wednesday afternoon crash on MoPac Expressway killed one person, injured two others and shut down the highway's northbound side at one of the evening commute's busiest crossings. Austin police are investigating the crash, which closed all northbound general and express lanes of MoPac at Steck Avenue this afternoon, the Austin News Roundup's evening edition reported, carrying CBS Austin's reporting.
The Austin Police Department's Watch Command confirmed to CBS Austin that the critically injured patient was pronounced dead at the hospital. Two other people were injured in the crash. Police have not released the name of the person who died, and the coverage read by the desk does not establish how many vehicles were involved or what caused the collision — the investigation will have to answer both.
The closure landed in the middle of the PM drive on the corridor Austin drivers use to cross the city north to south, and it held through the early evening. Authorities have since reopened all northbound lanes at Steck Avenue, KVUE reported — the Texas Department of Transportation had carried the closure while the lanes were shut.
Fatal-crash investigations on MoPac typically continue well after the road reopens, and APD's vehicle-homicide work will determine whether any charge follows. For Wednesday night, the confirmed record is short and stark: one death, two injuries, a highway closed and reopened, and a family somewhere in Austin getting the worst kind of news.
