AUSTIN -- Video of the deadly crash on Guadalupe and 30th Sunday at 7 p.m. tells part of the story. It's what happened before that has police scratching their heads.
Linda Woodman, 59, is charged with intoxication assault and manslaughter for killing 61-year-old Dik Van Meerten and seriously injuring 21-year-old Sarah Lee Parker.
Police say in a span of two city blocks, Woodman struck a car, then ran over two people outside Wheatsville Co-op, then drove a couple hundred feet dragging a bike rack, before crashing her SUV into a light pole.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Woodman had constricted pupils, her balance was wobbly, and she appeared sleepy. Police say she was wearing plastic bracelets, had been in the hospital, and she told officers she'd been given Morphine and Percocet.
According to her arrest affidavit, Woodman told police she had been treated for fainting. A source tells KVUE News she left Seton Medical Center on 38th Street at 5 p.m., about two hours before the accident.
Sarah Lee Parker is now recovering from serious injuries at Brackenridge Hospital. Dik Van Meerten, was a senior IT project manager from North Carolina. He was in Austin visiting his two children.
Van Meerten's daughter Sylvia says, "Dik was a kind, generous, thoughtful man, with friends and relatives all over the world. His robust personality and huge laugh were a delight to those who knew him."
Woodman is in jail on $55,000 bond.
The Seton Medical Center issued this statement to KVUE:
"While Seton is not permitted to speak about any patient’s case specifically, it is important to note that Seton has policies and processes in place to ensure that patients who receive care in our facilities have a safe mode of transportation from the hospital to their next destination, up to and including placing them in a taxi, making it clear that they are not to drive for a certain period of time, and/or alerting the Department of Motor Vehicles," Ellen F. Decareau, Seton Communications Specialist.
