AUSTIN, Texas — Eleven people were wounded in Austin on Friday night after a vehicle crashed into a food truck and multiple pedestrians, Austin-Travis County Emergency Management Services confirmed.
Update 6:25 p.m. EDT April 9: A Salt Lake City-based company confirmed Saturday that 10 of its employees in Austin for a DeafNation Expo were among 11 injured when a vehicle crashed into a food truck.
According to a press release issued by Sorenson Communications, the employees, who have not been identified publicly, were gathered near the food truck when the crash occurred, KUTV reported.
Sorenson CEO Jorge Rodriguez was on his way to Austin to visit the injured employees, and the communications device company has already dispatched sign language interpreters to the area hospital where some of the employees were treated, the TV station reported.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic event. Our hearts are with those in the Sorenson family who sustained injuries and with those impacted by the event,” Rodriguez stated.
According to KXAN, nine of the 11 people involved in the crash were wounded, including two with potentially life-threatening injuries.
The DeafNation Expo is taking place at the Palmer Events Center on Saturday, the TV station reported.
Details on the 11th victim were not immediately available.
Original report: The crash occurred at around 8:35 p.m. local time when a vehicle plowed into the Holla Mode, an ice cream food truck, KVUE reported.
EMS officials confirmed to the TV station just before 11 p.m. EDT that two victims were seriously injured with potentially life-threatening injuries but not all of the wounded required hospitalization.
According to KXAN, two victims refused medical treatment and seven suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses told a KVUE reporter on the scene that several of the wounded were deaf and hearing impaired.
Meanwhile, another witness told the TV station that he saw a white pickup traveling at a high rate of speed moments before what sounded like an “explosion” from the crash.