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SXSW Crash Survivor Hopes To Walk At High School Graduation

One of the victims of the car crash into South by Southwest crowds is now in the rehab stage of her recovery. 

Mason Endres can now hop on one leg and push herself in a wheelchair. But she’s still learning to walk again.

The 18-year-old from Liberty Hill suffered a number of injuries – broken vertebrae and a broken femur and a severed artery in her leg, among others – when a car hit her during South by Southwest last month. Four died in the crash, and nearly two dozen were hospitalized. 

The suspected drunk driver, Rashad Owens, was allegedly evading police and is now behind bars. After weeks in St. David’s hospitals, Endres says she’s not dwelling on Owens’ fate.

"I mean, he pretty much did this to himself," Endres says. "He ruined his own life and I can’t let that affect me anymore. I could have a bad attitude about it and dwell on it or I could get on with my life and get better."

Dr. Robert Lee, one of the physicians at St. David's Rehabilitation Hospital, says she’s had two surgical procedures and one upcoming on her knee.

"Fortunately given the impact of a motor vehicle hitting somebody, she’s very fortunate that she didn’t have more severe injuries to her brain or spinal cord," Lee says.

Endres hopes to walk across the stage at her high school graduation. Doctors are unsure she’ll be able to. What is certain, though, is that after graduation she’ll be heading to the University of Texas at Austin.

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