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 Four people died at this year's event when a 21-year-old motorist
plowed into crowds of festival-goers over the space of several
hundred yards as he fled a sobriety checkpoint.
Lizzy Plug, the widow of Steven Craenmehr from Amsterdam in the
Netherlands, filed a wrongful death suit in a federal Texas court,
arguing that festival operators should have foreseen the possibility
of the fatal car crash.
The complaint pointed to the over 500 arrests for public drunkenness
and drunk driving during the past five years of the event, saying
organizers should have implemented more traffic precautions.
"A festival organizer and a traffic design consultant of ordinary
intelligence would have anticipated the danger," the complaint said.
 "If SXSW had adhered to industry standards and utilized adequate
traffic control measures, Steven Craenmehr would be alive today," it
added.
Local broadcaster KVUE reported that lawsuits were filed on Thursday
on behalf of eight other people who were caught up in the crash.
Texas residents Jamie West, Sandy Thuy Le and DeAndre Tatum, along
with Craenmehr all died and some two dozen people were injured after
being hit by the car that was driven by Rashad Charjuan Owens.
In a statement to KVUE, South by Southwest organizers called the
crash a tragedy, but placed the blame on Owens.
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"What happened on Red River was a terrible tragedy, caused by Rashad
Owen's utter disregard of human life. Our hearts continue to ache
for those injured and the families of those who lost their lives. We
look forward to his prosecution for his awful crimes," the statement
said.
Owens was charged with 20 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon, along with capital murder charges. Each assault count can
bring up to life in prison, while a conviction on capital murder
carries the possibility of the death penalty.
South by Southwest, which ran from March 7-16, began as a music
event in 1987. It features technology conferences, a film festival
and music shows that draw tens of thousands of people to the Texas
capital each year.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Crispian
Balmer)
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