AUSTIN, TX (10/05/2015) — A driver who allegedly failed to yield the right of way caused an accident which claimed the life of Mary Bourland on Monday afternoon.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), 68-year-old Mary Schettler Bourland was killed on Monday afternoon following a two-vehicle accident that occurred in the 1600 block of East Slaughter Lane at Orchard Ridge (near Onion Creek) in Austin, Texas.
DPS spokeswoman Robbie Barrera reports that at around 3:47 p.m., Bourland was traveling eastbound on Slaughter Lane in a 1996 Ford Escort LXE when the driver of a 2011 Kia Sorento pulled out of the River Ridge Estates and into the path of Bourland’s vehicle, causing an accident.
The driver of the Kia apparently did not see the Ford approaching, and Bourland broadsided the Kia as it entered the roadway.
Bourland was transported to University Medical Center at Brackenridge, where she later died.
According to police, the driver of the Kia was taken to a nearby area hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injures.
No charges are being filed at this time.
Commentary
It’s unknown at this point why the driver of the Kia failed to notice Bourland’s vehicle approaching, and we likely won’t have an answer until an investigation is finished. Could the driver have been distracted? Quite possibly. It’s estimated that one in every four crashes in Texas are caused by driver distraction.
