AUSTIN — A man is in the hospital with severe injuries to his pelvis and lungs after a suspected drunk driver slammed into him while he was pumping gas early Sunday morning.
The crash happened around 12:30 a.m. on Interstate 35 near St. Elmo Road in South Austin. According to an arrest affidavit, a witness saw a driver, later identified as 22-year-old Justin Navarrete, speeding and weaving out of their lane while going northbound on the I-35 frontage road. As the vehicle was about to get onto the ramp to the freeway, the witness said the driver was about to hit a concrete divider when he made a sharp right turn to avoid crashing into the divider.
“I’m still shaking. Like, trembling,” Arlaus said, saying it’s hard not to think of the “what ifs.”When Navarette swerved, he hit a light pole and then slammed into Kyle Braker, who was in the middle of pumping gas, and his car. According to court documents, the impact fractured Baker’s pelvis and damaged his lungs. His girlfriend, Shelby Arlaus, was sitting in the front seat, on the passenger’s side of Baker’s car when the SUV hit them. She had minor injuries.
“If we were at a different pump it wouldn’t have been us. If we were 10 feet forward, it wouldn’t have hit him so hard,” she said.
Though the injuries will mend and bruises will heal, it’s the sounds that will stick with her.
“I heard behind me, from the highway ‘rrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrr’ — like screeching,” she recalled. “I just saw the truck, I saw the lights just flip.”
And then, she says, a white flash. The SUV landed upside down over the back end of Braker’s car. Arlaus says she found her boyfriend on the ground, between the car and gas pump.
“I grabbed him from underneath his shoulders and dragged him up to the front of the store in case a fire started,” she said.
Looking back through the pictures she took on her phone Sunday morning, she said, “We can’t figure out why this happened or, you know, why us of all people, standing there pumping gas and we get hit by a truck.”
Arlaus said Monday also marks Braker’s birthday, one she’s just grateful he gets to see.
“We’re just thinking it could always be worse. We’re trying to stay positive,” she said. Something having her dad involved in a drinking and driving accident, only makes more difficult. “He’s still not the same.”
Police say Navarrete was disoriented, with bloodshot, watery, glassy eyes. Court documents indicate Navarette was “unresponsive at times and when he attempted to talk, his speech was so slurred it was not understandable.” Police indicate there was also a strong odor of alcohol, and described Navarrete as uncooperative.
“You don’t know whose life you’re putting at stake. Why risk it?” Arlaus said.
Documents indicate a preliminary breath test showed Navarrete’s blood alcohol content at 0.242, which is three times the legal limit. Navarrete is currently in the Travis County Jail charged with intoxication assault.
APD reports so far this year, more than 3,000 people have been arrested for driving while intoxicated. That’s compared to 5,800 DWI arrests in all of 2015.
