Hospital bollard bill dies under Texas industry pressure ...Middle East

Project Summary:

This story is part of KXAN’s “Preventing Disaster” investigation, which initially published on May 15, 2024. The project follows a fatal car crash into an Austin hospital’s emergency room earlier that year. Our team took a broader look at safety concerns with that crash and hundreds of others across the nation – including whether medical sites had security barriers – known as bollards – at their entrances. Experts say those could stop crashes from happening.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A bill aimed at preventing future vehicle crashes at hospital emergency rooms in Texas will not pass this legislative session due, in large part, to an aggressive lobbying effort by the Texas Hospital Association against a proposed safety step, according to multiple sources.

Senate Bill 660, which was supported by the Texas Nurses Association, would have required crash-rated vertical barriers, called bollards, at hospitals across the state. It was sparked by a series of KXAN investigations following last year's crash at St. David's North Austin Medical Center that seriously injured five people and left the driver, who was intoxicated, dead.

The bill's author, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, plans to re-file the bill during the next legislative session in 2027, his legislative director told KXAN.

Despite several last-minute changes made to address concerns from the THA — including an amendment to only require bollards at new hospitals in counties with a population of 1.2 million or more — the bill stalled in the House Public Health Committee. It received a hearing last Monday but failed to get a vote before the clock ran out and a key deadline on Saturday passed.

Last month, the Senate approved the measure 23-7.

The THA, which represents more than 85% of Texas' acute-care hospitals and health care systems, had pushed back against the measure over concerns related to cost, autonomy and a belief that a bollard requirement unfairly targeted hospitals over other sites that could be prone to vehicle crashes.

The THA called the proposal an "unfunded mandate."

"This bill imposes a one-size-fits-all mandate on a single industry that does not, to our knowledge, pose a greater safety risk to the public than many other types of businesses," THA General Counsel Steve Wohleb testified before the House panel.

Since the deadly ER crash in Austin in February 2024, KXAN uncovered more than 400 crashes at a variety of medical-related sites across the country since 2014, resulting in more than 20 deaths, according to an analysis of TxDOT, police, EMS and media reports. There are no local, state or federal requirements for critical infrastructure, like hospitals, to have bollards. KXAN witnessed crash testing at Texas A&M Transportation Institute that revealed crash-rated versions of the devices can be effective at stopping the equivalent of a Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling at 20 miles per hour.

We shared those findings with local and state policymakers and visited more than two dozen Central Texas hospitals to see how many entrances lacked bollards (nine had partial coverage and seven had none at the time).

"Despite their life-saving potential, a KXAN investigation found many Central Texas hospitals lack adequate bollard protection," Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, who sponsored the bill in the House, said at Monday's public hearing.

The bill's demise comes nearly six months after the Austin City Council passed an ordinance to require crash-rated bollards at new local hospitals, urgent care clinics and standalone ERs. That safety step was initiated by former Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who testified in front of a Senate and House panel in support of expanding that requirement to hospitals across the state.

"Bollards save lives and the legislation will ensure hospitals in our largest counties don't have to learn that lesson the hard way," Kelly told House lawmakers during her testimony. "Disasters don't discriminate. But policy can determine whether or not we're prepared."

In a statement to KXAN, Kelly said she is "incredibly proud" of Austin's new bollard law and hopes it will "serve as a model for proactive, common-sense public safety."

"While I'm disappointed that SB 660 did not make it out of the House Public Health Committee this session, I remain hopeful and encouraged," Kelly later told KXAN. "Austin led the way by acting before tragedy struck again, and I firmly believe this idea's time will come at the statewide level. Protecting patients, emergency personnel, and hospital visitors should never be a partisan issue — it's a matter of life safety."

KXAN has reached out to St. David's HealthCare— which opposed Austin's ordinance — for comment. The hospital system said it "does not have anything to add" to this report. We also reached out to the THA, West, Rose and the chair of the Public Health Committee, Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, for comment. We did not immediately hear back and will update this report with any responses.

"I am grateful to Senator West and Representative Rose for championing this bill," Kelly added, "and look forward to supporting its reintroduction next session."

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