This story won first place for written news in the TCCJA 2018 Live News Competition. We wrote it in response to a staged live news event (no one was actually struck by a distracted driver) on a deadline of a couple hours.
John made most of the bones of the story - which facts should appear and in what order - and I wrote most of the copy. We and a couple other Courier writers visited the scene of the staged accident to observe it and conduct interviews. A couple more staffers contributed in the form of transcription and finding statistics online.
It is TAMUC, not TUMAC.
By John C. McClanahan and Matthew Brown
Two Texas A&M-Commerce students were struck by a distracted driver on campus. One victim lay in a pool of blood and the other stood in a state of shock after they tried crossing the street in front of Whitney Residence Hall at the corner of Culver and W. Neal streets Oct. 12.
At approximately 8:30 a.m., as rain drizzled from the sky, 19-year-old TUMAC sophomore Marcus Allen stepped out of his navy blue Kia Sportage SE to check on the two he had hit. One victim, wearing a tie-dye Joe’s Crab Shack shirt and sporting turquoise-dyed hair, sustained a major injury which had left the victim lying unconscious in the road, as blood spread around the more seriously injured victim’s body. The other victim, who had sustained a minor head injury, stood to the side of the scene with blood trickling from behind one ear. Jason Bone, TUMAC campus police lieutenant, said the two were taken to Greenville Presbyterian Hospital. Their identities and current conditions are currently unknown, he said.
Allen, a theater tech student, said he was looking for a parking spot closer to the buildings to avoid walking through the rain. He said he was driving alone, and had looked away for a second to change a song on his phone when the accident occurred. “You've seen the way people cross around here,” Allen said. “They kind of just come up out of nowhere and try to get across as fast as possible."
Allen spoke slowly and confusedly, a quaver in his voice, saying that he takes full responsibility for the accident and wishes he could have done more to help the victims: “I mean, I did it,” he said. “I would rather be over there helping them than answering questions, to be honest.” He said that he never uses drugs or alcohol.
Bone said the Texas Department of Public Safety will assist campus police in the investigation. Bone said he is not aware of whether Allen broke laws prohibiting phone use while driving, but said the DPS will assist campus police in the investigation. He also said it is against Texas law to use a cell phone while driving. “It is a class B misdemeanor that turns into a felony if there was a death involved,” he said.
In 2016, 3,450 people died on American roads in automobile accidents affected by distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Furthermore, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, 19 percent of all reportable motor vehicle traffic crashes on Texas roads involved distracted driving. More specifically, Hunt County recorded 17 serious injuries in 2017 resulting from accidents suspected to be related to distracted driving, according to TxDOT.
Adam Bourenane, Stephanie Colmenero, Stephanie Salas-Vega and Malen Blackmon contributed to this report.
