On Oct. 17, a woman unaffiliated with Trinity University under the influence of drugs and alcohol drove off Highway 281, turned onto campus and crashed into the railing in front of the Robert R. Witt Reception Center before being intercepted by TUPD officers. She was arrested and taken to jail under outstanding warrants for her arrest. TUPD continues its investigation to file appropriate charges for intoxicated driving and property damage.
TUPD Assistant Chief John Rowse spoke on the unusual nature of this accident. Rowse noted that while these sorts of incidents have happened on campus before, it is rare that a person unaffiliated with Trinity would make it onto campus to cause this kind of accident.
“We’ve had people on campus driving erratically in the past,” Rowse said. “It does not happen very often, and it is very unusual for someone to come off of the highway and then end up driving onto campus … Most of the time if this were to happen, the person would either be Trinity-affiliated or would be with someone affiliated.”
Additionally, Rowse noted how the driver’s actions were not always consistent with an intoxicated person, making identification difficult until the crash occurred.
“The interesting thing was when the car came in, it wasn’t driving [erratically] the whole time,” Rowse said. “It turned in and went straight up towards Mabee at a regular rate of speed and drove … through lot P, which is kind of hard sometimes to drive through even for a regular person … and didn’t hit a vehicle all the way.”
Initially, the driver was reported to TUPD by a student in a vehicle who witnessed the driver exiting the highway erratically. Another student on the sidewalk reported the driver after she crashed into the railing outside of the Witt Center and was driving away. Rowse credited TUPD’s ability to respond to the incident to the swiftness of the reports and encouraged students to reach out if they suspect dangerous or illegal activity, even if they are hesitant to get involved.
“Immediately call TUPD, our emergency number, especially for something like this,” Rowse said. “Sometimes the students don’t want to, they don’t want to get involved. They want to report it, but they maybe don’t want to talk to the police, and we understand that. So we also have our app which is called the See Say app … that allows you to report anonymously.”
TUPD chief Paul Chapa noted that while this is a unique event, students must remain aware of their surroundings, especially due to Trinity being an open campus in a major city.
“We are living in a large metropolitan city,” Chapa said. “We are an open campus, so we have activity that tends to find its way on campus at all times of the day and night. And though Trinity is a very safe place … being aware of your surroundings is very important.”
Both Chapa and Rowse emphasized the importance of maintaining a transparent relationship with Trinity students to ensure campus safety.
“The transparency that we focus on as a police department to our community is so critical … I think that’s how you establish trust and I think that’s so important for the work we do,” Chapa said.
However, while TUPD was able to respond to this car accident and are working to improve their relationship with the Trinity community, some students still feel there is work to be done to form a connection between the student body and TUPD. Katia Knickerbocker, junior environmental studies major who heard about the car crash through word of mouth, expressed some hesitancy about student relationships with TUPD.
“I do trust TUPD to keep me safe in some situations,” Knickerbocker said. “I was always taught to respect the police officers and appreciate them, but I also think there is room for improvement, and especially at a small school it is especially more critical that they do their part to keep our community safe … because there are other issues other than [car] accidents.”
