It was early on a Monday morning, when he was weary from searching Austin all night for his sister and niece, that family patriarch Elisandro Almanza said it felt as though death had engulfed his body as he clicked on a news article about an 18-wheeler crash on Interstate 35.
Elisandro — who had passed by the same crash site a half-dozen times Oct. 25while frantically searching for 37-year-old Juana Almanza and her 15-year-old daughter, Kimberlye—said it didn't cross his mind that the vehicle could have belonged to his sister.
It was charred beyond recognition, smashed beyond identification. So he, along with other family members,kept searching.
Elisandro, hearing Juana's voicemail in the back of his mind saying her car had broken down the night before,scrolled through news articles at daybreak as a last-ditch effort to help find the pair.
One article from that night showed the same vehicle crash on I-35 in North Austin, but this timehe recognized the rim of atire. Andinstantlyhe knew his beloved sister and niece were gone.
Almanzaand her daughterdied in their vehicle after an 18-wheeler struck them as they were parked on the shoulder with their hazard lights activated. The vehicle caught fire on impact.
"I couldn't breathe and was shaking," Elisandro said in Spanish. "I think I was the last person she called right before the crash. I feel like I'm dying in the inside. I just have to take it one day at a time."
The Almanzas were among 12 people, including Austin police officer Lewis "Andy" Traylor, to die in 18-wheeler crashes in the city in 2021. As of Friday, Austin police had recordeda total of 119traffic deaths—the most in the nearly four decades that the department haskept such records.
More:With 3 months to go, 2021 shaping up to be record-breaking year for traffic deaths in Austin
The continuing rise in deadly road incidents undermines efforts to eliminate traffic deathsthrough the tax-funded initiative called Vision Zero. Despite the costly program, which dedicated $15 million in bonds to upgrade dangerous roads, deaths are on the rise, and Austin police point to what could be a sign of a deeper issue: a shortage oftraffic cops.
The deadliest year
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic cleared Austin'sstreets oftypicalbumper-to-bumper trafficas people started working from home and students began remote learning.
Despite the changing times, Austin recorded 94 deaths in 2020 — the highesttollsince 2015, when the city tallied102 deaths. Those deaths often involved distracteddrivers or speeders taking advantage of the empty roads, according to Austin police.
From 2016 to 2019, the city averagedonly 79 deaths.
In 2021, as vaccines becamemore widely available in the spring,more drivers returned to the roads and deaths continued to rise.The119traffic deathsis an all-time highgoing back to1985, the earliest date for such police records.
More:Austin records 100th traffic death of the year, most killed on city roadways since 2015
The city tracksnonfatal wrecks that result in serious injuries, which also increased in 2021. As of Oct. 31, the most recent data available, wrecks caused 431 serious injuries, up from 351 for the same period in 2020. Police logged 10,871 total crashes —up from 10,226 forthe same period in 2020.
Deadly wrecks are risingthroughout the country, not just in Austin. In the first nine months of 2021, the nation sawa 16% spike in traffic deaths compared with the same period in 2020.
Vision Zero and police staffing
To curbthe number of fatal crashes,Austin has spent $15 million from voter-approved bonds to improveintersectionsand an additional $200,000 to address high-injury roads through its Vision Zero initiative. Crashes are down in those areas, according to data provided by the city, which suggests the death toll could have been worse had those areas not been addressed.
Compared with 2019, crashes have dropped 30% citywide when drivers turnleft across traffic, a reduction of about 500 crashes.
The city spent $950,000 in 2020 in Vision Zero's operating budget, a commitment not only to flatten the curve of traffic deaths but to ultimately stamp them out entirely.
Thatgoal might seem impossible, as Texas has recorded at least one traffic death every day for the past 21 years. But part of the goal was reachedinOslo, a Norwegian city of nearly 700,000 people with a Vision Zero plan. In 2019, that cityhad no pedestrian or cyclist deaths.
More:Two pedestrians killed on Austin roads last weekend push traffic death toll to 112, police say
While the Vision Zero plan looks great on paper, some within the Austin Police Department say there were many challenges to implementing parts of the program with a skeleton crew of officersin 2021,according to Sgt. RyanHuling, APD'slast remaining impaired driving investigator.
Austin police, seeing the spikein traffic deaths, point to an officershortage that has left shifts understaffed, promptingleadership to disband a unit dedicated to cracking down on drunken driving and another to catch speeders. Officers in those units, originally part of Huling's team of 20,have been moved to patrol.
The department is about 200 officers short of the 1,809 for which it is budgeted —much of it the result of the City Council voting to eliminate three cadet training academy classes in 2020.
The staffing shortageled to a citywide vote Nov. 2 that would have bolstered the force by requiring the city to hire hundreds of additional officers and maintain two officers per 1,000 residents. The proposition failed by more than 56,000 votes, with 68% of voters opposed and 31% in favor.
More:Austin voters overwhelmingly reject Prop A police staffing plan
Fewer citations, arrests
As a result of the shortages, officers are issuing significantly fewer citations for speeding and making fewer arrests for drunken driving —two factors commonly linked to wrecks.
In the 2021 fiscal year, which went through the end of September, the Austin Municipal Court reported 4,351 citations for speeding. That was down 43% from 2020 (7,751), 69% from 2019 (14,399), 80% from 2018 (22,598) and 88% from 2017 (39,179).
Arrests for drunken driving are also down. Travis County sawan average of 17 new cases filed per day in 2017 and again in 2018. That dipped to 15 per day in 2019 and 12 in 2020 —when large social gatherings didn't happen for much of the year and bars operated at reduced capacity, if at all.
In 2021, about 11 arrests for drunken driving are made on a given day in Travis County, according to authorities. Incidents involving driving while intoxicated led to at least eight deathsfor Austin, according to police records.
Huling said Vision Zero used some grant money to crack down on drunken drivers by funding overtime for officers to help with the city's no-refusal program, in which officers are on call to draw blood from suspected drunken drivers. But the overtime positionsoften go unfilled, he said.
"They're simply too busy or picking up overtime elsewhere to help backfill patrol because of our low staffing that they're just not doing it," Huling explained, saying the same issue is happening across the department.
Police Chief Joe Chacon said he has requested assistance in enforcing traffic laws from other law enforcement agencies, including the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Travis County sheriff's office.
More:Changes at Austin police academy a mixed bag so far, consultants report
"Our officers are doing a good job of it, butat the same time, if they're stuck on a priority call, they don't have the opportunity to proactively work on traffic enforcement," he said.
Even with help from other departments, police Sgt. Sandra Benningfield, who investigates fatal crashes, said her unit is overworked andunderstaffed with eight detectives. She believes her team should have abouta dozen investigators to function most efficiently.
"One of the hurdles, or one of the things we had to adapt to, is all of the DWI units going back to patrol," she said. "When we have a fatal crash with a DWI, or suspected DWI driver, we have to work around trying to make sure that we have certified DWI officers responding to help investigate those cases. It's a lot of work for the team."
DWIs aside, Benningfield said trends for fatal crashes appear to be similar in 2020and 2021, with many a result of speeding on major highways such as Interstate 35, MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and Texas 71.
According to a map from the city, 27 fatalcrashes through the end of October happened on or near I-35. At least27 deaths in 2021 were a result of single-vehicle crashes, the majority being thosedrivers running into trees, poles and concrete barricades.
Pedestrian deaths in 2021 appear to be on par with 2020, making up about 34% of fatal crashesin 2020 and about36%in 2021, according to Benningfield.
However, one trend reemergedin 2021, and it claimed the life of an Austin police officer — deadly collisions involving semis and 18-wheelers.
Deaths in 18-wheeler crashes rise
Tears poured downMelissa Traylor's cheeksas she sat down with the American-Statesman in late Novemberfor her first media interview since her husband, Austin police officer Andy Traylor, died in a wreck July 31.
Early that morning, she learned her husband was brain dead after crashing into an 18-wheeler while respondingto a shooting call in East Austin.
"They said he was in critical condition," remembered Traylor,now a widowedmother of five young children. The knock on the door had startledher as she slept beside her two young sons. "They said time was of the essence and I needed to get to the hospital. It was the longest 45-minute drive of my life."
More:Austin police officer Andy Traylor remembered as leader, mentor, loving dad after crash
Andy Traylor, affectionately called Captain America by his children,crashed into the side of an 18-wheeler that hadblocked the roadwhilemakingan illegalU-turn in East Austin, police said. Melissa, along with heroldest daughter, spent four days by Andy'sside in the hospital, tryingto make sense of their loss.
"They believe he was brain dead from the second that the accident happened," Melissa Traylor said. "The only reason we kept him alive for a few more days was to preserve his organs so he could save as many people as possible."
Traylor said they waited for the swelling to go down in her husband's face before bringing in her younger children to say their final farewells to their "Captain." He was a lover of Marvel movies, the film "Top Gun," his job policing in East Austinand, most of all, his family.
"It was horrifying to see the extent of what happened to him," Melissa said. "From such a handsome, stunning young man to such a horrific accident and the aftermath. Andthat's what the kids got to see last.
"It's hard, but they are good kids. They're strong. He would be proud of them."
Benningfield, who was charged with investigating Traylor's death and others involving 18-wheelers, said police aren't surewhy fatalities with big rigs increased in 2021.
The 12 deaths caused by 18-wheeler crashes accounted for 10% of the total traffic deaths in 2021. It was an overall increase indeaths from 2020 (one; 1% of all traffic deaths), 2019 (five;5%) and 2018 (11, 14%).
"They're all kind of different," Benningfield said. "There just seems like there are more of them. We haven't noticed a trend of a particular reason whythere are more of them."
John Esparza, president and CEO of the Texas Trucking Association, said he believes it goes back to more people on the roads after the wide release of COVID-19 vaccines, along with more speeding anddistracted driving.
"I was certainly anticipating an uptick because we saw a downtick during COVID," he said. "A less congested highway is definitely a safer highway. We learned through conversations we had with APD during the course of COVID that, while the number of accidents went down, the severity went up.
"Whenthere was nobody driving out there, folks were driving faster. There was more distracted driving at greater speeds, and that translation was not positive."
The Texas Trucking Association even lost one of its own truckers in 2021, which is unusual because of the protection the large vehicles can provide to drivers.
Michael Moore, 51, of Tennesseewas driving his white 2006 Kenworth semion Interstate 35 around Georgetown when he crashed into a guardrail separating the upper and lower deck of the highway, according to authorities.
Investigators were unable to determine why he crashed, according to his daughter Miranda Moore.
"We were very close," Moore said. "I was honestly 'daddy's little girl.' He was my best friend, and his grandkids were his everything."
Moore said she always had brief moments of concern about her dad being on the road full-timebut added that she had some level of comfort knowing he had been a truck driver long before she was born. However, she still called him each morning on her way to work to make sure he was safe and not too lonely.
"Before he died, he was planning to go park his truck and come here and see us, but he never got the chance," she said. "He was just the most outgoing person you'd ever meet in your life. He just really, really loved his job. He loved trucking and everything about it."
Melissa Traylor saidthat while the dozen18-wheeler deaths in 2021 might seem like a small number to some, she believes many, if not all, could have been avoided by having more police officers in Austin.
"It goes back to, once again, just where we are at in our city," she said. "In general, they're trying to respond quicker to calls, butwith thatcomes other drivers needing to pay better attention to their surroundings. If we had more officers, there's a good chance this wouldn't happen."
Families grieve during the holidays
Hoping for a safe endto 2021, the city ramped up an educational campaign in multiple languages around the holiday season featuring messages via digital media, social media, television, radio and print that encouraged Austin residents to drive responsibly.
As Christmas neared, the Almanza familyfinally received some form ofclosure after laying Juana and Kimberlye to rest.
It took weeksfor Kimberlye to be legallyidentified by the coroner's office because her remains were so badly burned in the vehicle fire. Her family described the teenager as always smiling and especially caring toward her grandparents.
Elisandro Almanza, who was joined by Juana's mother, husband and eldest son inside the family home in North Austin, said the holidays were an especially painful time because the most cherished memories they have of Juana and Kimberlyeare at family gatherings.
Sitting in front of a living room memorial to her daughter and grandchild, Maria Almanza sharedthatJuana was the life of every holiday, making sure all of the meals were cooked and that the childrenhad presents to open for Christmas.
The 37-year-old has three other children, ages 6, 9 and 18, whom her husband and the rest of the family now care for together.
"We feel lost without her," Maria Almanza said in Spanish. "She was always the one getting the family together. We feel empty.We just don't know what to do."
As the patriarch of the family, Elisandro said he's just trying to keep his family strong entering the new year, holding to the memories thatflood back into his mind dailywhen he picks up his nephews from school.
"I try to do my best helping the family cope with this difficult situation," he said. "I always have on my mind those beautiful memories we have from all of the family events. We all are a very close family. I will keep those memories alive, deep in my heart."
