Welcome back to another edition of Lubbock Sucks, the only place that tracks our city’s transition from “Hub City” to “High-Speed Collision Capital of the South Plains.” This past weekend, Lubbock drivers decided that staying between the lines was far too mainstream, opting instead for a city-wide game of bumper cars with actual human lives. From motorcycles getting swiped at every major intersection to vehicles turning into literal fireballs near the border, it was a banner weekend for the local body shops and the morgue.
The carnage kicked off Friday night when a motorcyclist was killed near 53rd Street, followed by another fatal encounter for a 61-year-old rider at 42nd and Memphis. Honestly, at this point, if you’re riding a motorcycle in Lubbock, you might as well just wear a target on your back and hope the SUV driver texting their lunch order sees you through their tinted windshield. By Saturday morning, the chaos migrated to 19th and I-27, where two more people were seriously injured, because apparently, 7:00 AM is the perfect time to test out your vehicle’s crumple zones.
But why limit the incompetence to city limits? We took the show on the road to Clovis, where a head-on collision with a semi-truck ended in a fiery wreck that claimed two more lives. Not to be outdone, even our local legends couldn’t catch a break; Shallowater’s head basketball coach, Chuck Darden, ended up hospitalized after a crash down in Central Texas. It seems the Lubbock “driving curse” is portable now—leave the 806, and the spirit of bad lane changes follows you like a vengeful ghost.
When the smoke cleared, we were left with a tally of body bags and ICU visits that would make a Mad Max movie look like a safety PSA. We’ve got intersections that serve as graveyard precursors and drivers who treat a red light as a “maybe if you feel like it” suggestion. But hey, at least we’re consistent. If there’s one thing Lubbockites are good at, it’s making sure the “Days Since Last Fatality” sign never makes it past single digits.
Is it the dust in our eyes, or does everyone in this town think the “Yield” sign is just a decorative piece of West Texas folk art?
