400 calls to 911, 68 arrests, 8 major car crashes: Jeep Weekend in Crystal Beach
8 replies, posted
Alternate headline: Rednecks descend upon coastal community and overwhelm emergency services
https://www.click2houston.com/news/400-calls-for-service-68-arrests-8-major-car-crashes-jeep-weekend-in-crystal-beach
CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas - There were 400 calls for service on the Bolivar Peninsula during the Jeep Weekend at Crystal Beach, according to Henry Trochesset, Galveston County sheriff.
From Friday to Saturday, there were 68 arrests -- 30 of which were alcohol-related and 10 of which were DWI-related -- 10 major auto-pedestrian accidents, eight major car crashes and 14 minor accidents, Trochesset said.
He said at one point, LifeFlight was being treated as a regular ambulance since no emergency vehicles were left on the island to respond to calls.
By 6 p.m. Saturday, the Galveston County Sheriff's Office called the Texas Department of Public Safety for backup.
I saw a long post on Facebook about this nightmare relating to everyone who saw crashes and people getting hurt, abundant drugs, alcohol, and illegal activity. People driving too fast, people driving on the median, people standing on cars, people running red lights, people running across the highway, people getting run over, It was a clusterfuck.
Check out the video in the OP. I used to live down there and there was always parties, jeep weekends, biker weeks, etc, but nothing this wild. They really outdid themselves. I guess this event has been going on for years but I haven't heard much about it till now. I saw someone on a youtube video describe it as a "10 mile free for all on the beach."
For the record, driving on the beach is legal here.
i didn't even know a mass casualty evacuation ambulance existed
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113321/588dc641-c0c2-48c5-8ca6-9ed7ddbe35ae/image.png
Another part of the issue was high-tide i think, so it made it even more packed.
These people make our state look terrible. Seriously, these people are trash.
I imagine something like that is nice for setting up triage/temporary medical care after disasters like Hurricanes, which are not uncommon here. Also for, god forbid, terrorism/shootings. Houston also has 6 helicopters, each can carry 2 people, and cover the whole metropolitan area in 15 minutes.
Given how predictable tides are, you'd think the people setting up a beach side event would program it at low tide.
I think the core issue here is they lost all control and organization. It was an inundation of people in large vehicles for literally miles. This is a very large beach. Take a look at this video from when it was still mostly tame:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoaEyRWYzdU&t=0s
I guess what happened is night fell, and more and more people showed up, and it got wild. How do you control that? In Texas the beaches are all public property. You can go on them and do what you want unless local law prohibits. The nice thing about Bolivar is they're very lax. You can do whatever you want. Camp, burn, drink, drive, whatever. So once you publicize this event, and more people show up than you thought, there's really not much you can do except call the police. A much smaller scaled scene like this is common in the area on normal days.
IMO there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the beaches and having fun, as long as you're responsible, clean up after yourself, and yield to any wildlife you may find. (sea turtles breed here) You have to be a responsible person. I've gone to plenty of parties on the beach that were tame. I've even had cops show up on patrol and do nothing (even though we were technically breaking the local law with a controlled fire) because we were being responsible.
The problem is, once you get this many people, of a notoriously rowdy demographic, you're going to run into problems. We always had similar problems with the Lone Star Biker Rally (Bigger than Sturgis, btw). The population of the island doubles in a weekend and it was almost a morbid joke among locals about guessing how many people were gonna end up dead during the event.
Is salt water worse than regular road salt when it comes to rust? Legitimately curious
This looks like the most redneck thing ever
im usually not one to stereotype unironically
but this doesnt surprise me at all.
mall crawlers and lifted trucks are usually driven by complete douchebags and rednecks so the fact that alcoholic violence and violence in general occured doesn't surprise me at fucking all.
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