City temporarily closes 7A bridge following accident

Four neighbors standing at the side of CR1492 on the morning of February 8 were involved in a vehicle - pedestrian accident that seriously injured two of them, Alison Harla and Steve Gregg. Tricia Linklater Fields and Charla McCracken narrowly escaped being struck but sustained injuries while taking evasive action. Wimberley Fire and Rescue and EMS received the 911 call at 9:45 a.m. and Harla and Gregg were transported by ambulance to Ascension Seton in Kyle.

Eighteen months ago, on October 6, 2022, longtime Wimberley resident Jerry Fields was also struck by a truck in the same location and seriously injured. His wife Tricia and brother-in-law Steve Gregg were two of the victims involved in last week’s tragic repeat.

According to Robert Harla, Alison’s husband, Alison and three neighbors were standing on the side of CR1492 near the guard rail, closest to Blanco Bend East, just up the road from the low water crossing, when two of them were struck by a pickup truck. “I heard the truck hit the guard rail,” said Bob, who was in his carport at the time, and I looked over and saw Alison lying in the road. When I got to her, she wasn’t moving and had a bleeding head wound. She was on the opposite side of the road from the guardrail.”

Jerry Fields, who was in phone contact with his brother-in-law at the time of the accident, said, “I called Steve to report the results of my physical therapy appointment — related to my accident on October 6, 2022 — at 9:43. He answered and I heard a collision and he started screaming for help. I asked him what had happened and where he was. His phone was knocked away so he couldn’t respond. I immediately knew that they [Steve and Jerry’s wife, Tricia] must have been hit by a car at the same location where my accident occurred. I arrived there at 9:48 and called 911. I saw Bob Harla holding a woman’s head, exactly how he had held mine in 2022, and I rushed up and asked, ‘is that my wife?’ He said, ‘no, it’s mine.’ I ran past him and saw my wife talking to 911. I ran past her to see my brotherin- law screaming for help on the other side of the guard rail. A man was holding Steve’s head and I could see the compound fracture of his leg. Emergency personnel arrived and began to assist the victims. They loaded them and left, and my wife and I went to the ER in Kyle. The same crew that had taken me 18 months prior, now took my brother-in-law.”

Tricia Fields, who has now narrowly missed being struck by a vehicle twice at that location, told the Wimberley View that she managed to “dive over the guard rail.” Charla McCracken, she said, “somehow rolled under it.”

“Steve and I were walking uphill to West Blanco to check on a friend’s house and ran into Alison and Charla. None of us walk on any other part of 1492 because of the danger. Alison and Charla’s homes are a few feet from the accident site and they only walk on the side streets away from traffic. Steve was hit by the truck first and thrown over the guard rail and onto a large rock. I managed to dive face first over the guardrail into the rocks and brush. Charla dropped and was able to squeeze under the guard rail and when she came to, the truck’s tires were inches from her face. Alison was the most severely injured when the truck somehow scooped her up and threw her across to the far lane. I heard the tires squealing around the curve before I saw the truck. It was like a Fast and Furious movie speeding out of control.”

From her hospital room in the Intensive Care Unit, Bob related the wounds suffered by his wife. “She sustained a temporal skull fracture resulting in subdural hematomas, a fractured mastoid, clavicle and three fractured ribs. She also suffered compression fractures to thoracic and lumbar vertebra. There is displacement to a lumbar vertebra that will require bracing for at least two months to keep it stable while it heals. Both hospitalized neighbors will require a stay at an acute rehabilitation center following their discharge from the hospital.

Steve Gregg, according to Jerry Fields, suffered a “fractured shoulder, six broken ribs, and a compound leg fracture. We think he will be moved from ICU to rehab soon.”

“Ironically,” Bob Harla said, “The four were talking about what the City Council might do to make 1492 safer when they were hit.”

A week after the accident, in a regularly scheduled City Council meeting on February 15, a discussion to consider possible action regarding safety measures on CR1492 from RR12 to River Road was pushed to the front of the agenda. Citizens filled every seat in the chambers, some stood in an adjacent room, and representatives from EMS, Wimberley Fire and Rescue, and the Hays County Constable’s office stood outside.

City administrator Tim Patek told the assembled council and community members that the city closed the 1492 bridge following the February 8 accident and contacted city engineers. He introduced engineers Chad Gilpin and Ryan Bell to present their recommendations to the council.

The city engineers recommended four immediate measures: add a speed hump to slow drivers approaching a significant curve along the roadway that prompts many of its accidents, add yield signage to both sides of the bridge to alert drivers that the bridge is a single lane, refresh the traffic paint that has faded, and undertake an engineering study for additional signage on the area’s side streets.

During public comments, Bob Harla provided an update to his wife’s condition and joined others in an appeal to the city to take measures to make CR1492 safer. Citizen comments included the prevalence of excessive speed throughout the neighborhood and the existence of a ditch on the north side of the road that tended to send speeding drivers into the guardrail in wet conditions. One speaker who lives along the roadway where the curve exists told the council that her fence has been knocked down three or four times a year for the last fifteen years by speeding drivers. In remarks made by Assistant Fire Chief Christopher Robbins said, “since 2009 there have been 157 recorded incidents, of all kinds, between the 1200 and 100 blocks of 1492.” Hays County Constable, Precinct 3, Don Montague, told those present of the law enforcement challenges along the narrow roadway.

After a brief question and answer session between the council members and the city engineers, council member David Cohen made the motion “that we authorize the city to contact the county to have the speed humps put in post haste and proceed with other measures we discussed — signage, striping, buttons — as soon as possible, and to open up the bridge . . . when it is safe for the workmen doing the work.” Council member Jim Chiles seconded the motion and the council passed it unanimously. The first of the safety measures are expected to begin as early as Tuesday morning, weather permitting.

For months before the accident, said Mayor Gina Fulkerson in a telephone conversation with the View, “the City’s Transportation Advisory Board had been working hard to develop a set of recommendations to improve safety on CR1492 and had scheduled a Transportation Advisory Board Meeting on February 12 to discuss those measures.”

Unfortunately the accident occurred just days before those recommendations could be voted on and implemented. Speaking on behalf of the city, the Mayor said, “Everyone at the city was devastated to hear of this accident and feel deep sympathy to those injured and to their families.”

In a recent email sent to City Council members and shared with the View, Jerry Fields wrote, “So very sad that the City of Wimberley finally decided to do exactly what I had asked them to do many times before, the first time, about 35 years ago. Now there are two more victims with weeks, if not months, of rehab, along with me, having to deal with problems that could have been avoided by the city taking actions years ago.”