Published: December 01, 2007 04:32 pm      

Reckless situation

Impatience sends couple in car to ditch, driver to jail

San Marcos — Getting into a hurry on IH-35 cost a 20-year-old man hours of time in a Hays County Jail cell on Friday.

Joshua Scott Meurin, who police say caused a crash that injured two people late Thursday, reportedly told officers on the scene that “he was in a hurry to get to his girlfriend’s.”

Meurin was charged with two counts of deadly conduct and driving under the influence.

According to Sgt. Dave Waugh of the San Marcos Police Department, the accident occurred minutes after 11 p.m. Thursday near the 201 mile marker north bound. Waugh said the first officers to arrive found an 18-wheeler stopped in the roadway with Meurin’s vehicle sideways in front of it.

About 200 feet away there was a car in a ditch with two injured people inside.

Waugh said Meurin had been traveling in the far left lane of the interstate with the second car in front of him. “He struck the car in front of him and caused it to spin out of control, off the interstate and into a ditch across the access road.”

Both occupants, a man with a neck injury and a woman with a head injury, were taken to Central Texas Medical Center for treatment.

Waugh said Meurin “said he was in a hurry to get to his girlfriend’s when he attempted to pass the car by cutting in front of the 18-wheeler but he hit the car.”

Waugh said the charges were based on Meurin’s “extreme recklessness.”

Meurin was released from jail Friday under two bonds of $3,000.

Just two minutes before the wreck was reported, police were called to the Yellow Store at 301 E. Hopkins, where a man had refused to leave after having a verbal altercation with an employee.

Waugh said 42-year-old Randy Wayne Whitley was arrested for criminal trespass and carrying a weapon. Waugh said Whitley caused a disturbance and during it he “decided to lay down on the floor and refuse to leave.”

The weapons charge was found subsequent to Whitley’s arrest for criminal trespassing.



amiller@sanmarcosrecord.com