"Preventing Disaster: Investigating Hospital Crashes"

INVESTIGATIVE CATEGORY — SHOWCASE gold winner

KXAN
Contributors: Matt Grant, Josh Hinkle, Dalton Huey, Chris Nelson
05/15/2024

On Feb. 13, 2024, a white Acura barreled through the emergency room doors of St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, killing the driver and injuring at least five people. The next day, the chief medical officer admitted the hospital did not have protective barriers in front of the ER. Instead, he credited a lobby fish tank for absorbing the impact and saving lives, saying: “I thank God for intervening there and giving us that protection.” But as safety concerns lingered, KXAN investigators began digging into the often-fatal consequences of a hospital lacking security barriers at its entrances.

Over the next several months, KXAN took a local breaking news story and – through deep, original reporting – developed it into a nationwide project that provides our community with greater context for what happened. Using data, surveillance and witness video, media and archival searches, lawsuits, police reports and experts, we showed that what happened in Austin is surprisingly common. Our team traveled to dozens of hospitals across Central Texas, analyzed similar crashes across the state and broadened the scope of our research nationwide. We initially discovered more than 300 such incidents at medical centers in the last decade – a number now exceeding 400, after ten months of additional tracking by our team –and learned there is no legal requirement or industry standard for security barriers, called bollards, that could stop these crashes.

In an exclusive interview with KXAN, a family of four seriously hurt in the Austin crash spoke out. Our team documented crash tests conducted by a company building barriers it says could help save lives. We shared this investigation and our findings with more than 50 state lawmakers and also local leaders in cities where crashes happened. Days after our initial story launched, two Austin City Council members began drafting an ordinance to require crash-rated bollards at all new hospitals, urgent care clinics and stand-alone emergency rooms. Existing hospitals must install them during future expansions. Soon, officials from other cities, the Texas Legislature and Congress were considering new policies because of our reporting.

INVESTIGATIVE METHOD

As part of our project, we gained access to datasets from the Storefront Safety Council, an organization that tracks building crashes across the country. We vetted and analyzed the data, finding 244 crashes at medical facilities since 2014. We then performed our own separate acquisition and analysis of crash data from the Texas Department of Transportation using computer-assisted reporting techniques to discover at least 85 additional crashes in Texas alone. The combined total of more than 300 was used by the attorney suing St. David’s as a basis for a “gross negligence” claim against the hospital. We visited 34 major hospitals across Central Texas to survey which ones had bollards – several did not. We used the results to create interactive maps online showing the location of crashes across the U.S. and Texas and which hospitals use bollards.

To learn more about bollards, we reached out to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, which has crash-tested these safety features for decades. Initially, the agency denied our requests for an interview and would not let us watch any testing or see any videos, citing client confidentiality. We navigated that challenge by contacting multiple bollard companies around the country. One of the leading manufacturers, McCue Corporation out of Massachusetts, offered to test two of its bollards at TTI, so we could get a rare look at how these tests were done and see, firsthand, the stopping power of crash-rated barriers.

We also told our initial story through the experience of the family seriously injured at St. David’s. The victims’ names were never released to the public. KXAN tracked them down through shoe-leather reporting and deep sourcing and was able to convince them to tell their story on camera exclusively with us before they filed a lawsuit against the hospital seeking more than a million dollars in damages. We shared that story with policymakers, even documenting Austin City Council members’ emotional reactions as they watched – leading to their near-immediate promise to act.

PROJECT IMPACT

Austin’s new policy took effect at the end of 2024. The council member who filed the resolution directly attributed the change to our work, saying: “The team at KXAN did such a good job of explaining the problem and providing potential solutions that it would have been stupid for me not to have looked into this as a solution for the city of Austin.” As more cities, like Cedar Park and College Station, consider similar measures, Congressman Lloyd Doggett asked the General Services Administration to review all federally owned and leased buildings in the southwestern U.S. to see if bollards are needed. In two letters to the GSA, Doggett cited our “in-depth investigative reporting.” A state Senator also filed legislation to require crash-rated bollards at hospitals statewide, following our reports. Lawmakers will debate that bill in 2025.

Over more than 20 reports, we also broke important information: the family’s lawsuit against St. David’s; the autopsy report showing the driver was heavily intoxicated; Doggett’s GSA letters; St. David’s chief medical officer resigning; surveillance videos from inside and outside the hospital showing viewers, for the first time, how this crash occurred -- and how it could have been prevented. Following our reports, St. David’s North also installed a dozen bollards outside its emergency room, along with all its parent company’s other sites across Central Texas.

INNOVATIVE STEPS

KXAN investigators created a digital-first docuseries to anchor the multi-platform project. That video is featured on the main landing page, along with a longform article, interactive map components, a continuing coverage link box, clickable navigation buttons and embedded video extras like an extended interview with the family mentioned above and an animation of storefront crashes. Other pages and stories in the initial project launch included one highlighting KXAN’s efforts to expose lawmakers to our content and the historic lack of policies in Texas, another one walking viewers through the bollard crash test process – complete with a bollard comparison infographic and an extended testing video – and another showcasing the statements and responses from the dozens of hospitals referenced in our project.

MAIN LINK to content online

Additional links to supporting content online.
Texas-tested barriers could prevent ER crashes
KXAN visits 34 area hospitals for barrier checks
KXAN shares hospital findings with lawmakers
Local leaders promise action after KXAN report
‘This will save lives:’ New Austin law will make hospitals safer, KXAN credited
New bill would require safety barriers at Texas ERs, KXAN credited
Congressman, citing KXAN report, wants federal building safety review

Submitted by Josh Hinkle