Food truck severely damaged from fire after hit-and-run in Southeast Austin
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin police are still searching for a hit-and-run driver who ran down four people before hitting a food truck in Southeast Austin on Tuesday evening. That food truck caught on fire, destroying a family’s livelihood in just minutes.
It was a heart-wrenching cleanup for the Lopez-Hernandez family on Wednesday, one day after a hit-and-run driver plowed into the Sabor a Honduras food truck.
The bizarre chain of events began around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, when police were called to the parking lot at Elmont Drive and South Pleasant Valley Road for a reported theft. A woman told police that someone had stolen her phone.
Unable to track down the phone, police left the scene, but about 10 minutes later they say the woman got in her vehicle and hit four people with it. Two victims were taken to the hospital, one with serious injuries, but all the victims are expected to survive.
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The driver then kept going, crashing into the food trailer. The impact knocked the truck off its block and toppled a refrigerator, which hit Leticia Lopez in the arm.
Her sister Jenny walked out to see what happened, only to be confronted by the driver.
"When I went outside, that's when I noticed the woman with a knife and that's when she started chasing me. So I went back inside, we locked the door and the window," Jenny Carolina Lopez Hernandez told FOX 7 in Spanish.
That’s when the sisters noticed the fryer was on fire. They ran back outside, only to find the suspect had fled the scene. They called 911 as the flames spread.
"The burners were actively on at the time the food truck was in service. But we don't have a cause. We're still working to determine that," said Rachel Lewis of the Austin Fire Department.
While the impact from the crash on the outside of the trailer was minor, the inside is another story. The stove, the grill, and the refrigerator are charred by flames and soot.
After 17 years in this location, the challenge will be finding a new trailer, in order to open up shop again.
"We have kids that we have to take care of, and the situation is very hard. There's not a lot of work out there and any help we'll receive with open arms so we can pick ourselves up again," Lopez Hernandez told FOX 7 in Spanish.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Austin police released a description of the suspect. They say she is Hispanic, around 5’5" and 180 lbs. She was driving a gray or tan Toyota SUV. If you have any information, you’re urged to call Austin police.