Students Warned of Drunk Driving Ahead of Spring Break

A totaled truck (photos by William Hinman)

By William Hinman

As students walked through the Coates Esplanade on Thursday, they were met with cautionary reminders of the dangers of irresponsible alcohol consumption, including a totaled red pickup truck.

A sign attached to the truck told a chilling story of a drunk driver hitting this red pickup, killing the mother of the family, and injuring the father and two children. At the bottom of the sign, printed in all caps and bold typeface, a line reads: DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE.

That was the main message of the event, hosted by TUPD. The Alcohol Awareness event featured free lemonade, hot dogs, and “cop corn,” as well as vendors such as the San Antonio Police Department, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission, The Rape Crisis center, and the San Antonio Council on Alcohol and Drug Awareness.

To Jaywalk or Not To Jaywalk? The City Vista Debate

By Sophia Scearce

It’s 9:00 a.m. The mid-morning traffic has hit its peak for the day, as cars whiz down Hildebrand Avenue unassumingly during their morning commute. At 9:15, a flustered student emerges from the City Vista apartment complex, running late for class.

As he approaches the road, he takes one look at the traffic and quickly launches himself off the curb. He dashes across the two-way, four-lane avenue when it is clear for this one second. Once he reaches the green lawns of Trinity’s campus, he hurries off, continuing about his daily routine without a second thought.

Everyday, students living in City Vista, located on the corner of Hildebrand and Devine, must cross the traffic bustling Hildebrand in order to get to classes. This section of Hildebrand is curvy and hilly, making it hard for drivers to see very far down the road. This seemingly short walk across Hildebrand to campus, however, has students taking two different routes: crossing at the newly installed crosswalk right at the intersection of Hildbrand and Devine, or jaywalking across the street further west down Hildebrand.

TUPD Officer Laura Hernandez

Corporal Laura Hernandez
Photo courtesy of Laura Henandez

By Katie Groke

Corporal Investigator Laura Hernandez is all smiles when she talks about her time with the Trinity University Police Department. “TUPD rocks!” She is also one of only three female officers at TUPD, out of its force of 32.

Now her second year at Trinity, Hernandez has also been teaching a Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) class at Trinity, something she has done in various places for 22 years.

This course is offered as a physical education common curriculum course and is available to female students. Here she and Sylvia Villarreal, also with TUPD, teach young women different self-defense techniques. They also teach their students how to be good witnesses who can help officers get information across the radio. “Each person has something to learn from this course,” says Hernandez.