UT student seeks more than $1 million after Halloween drunk driving crash

January 20, 2026

A UT Austin student has sued for more than $1 million after being struck by an intoxicated driver outside a Raising Cane's on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard during the early hours of Oct. 31, 2025. Austin Police Department investigators say five students were hit when the driver lost control of the vehicle and ran over pedestrians near the restaurant. The injured student, informatics sophomore Srivaishnavi Vijay, suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple orthopedic problems, her attorney Sean Breen said. Her legal team says she will require several surgeries and has been unable to continue her studies at the university because of the severity of her injuries. The driver, communication and leadership senior Antonia Garcia-Rios, is scheduled for trial on Feb. 18 on a charge of intoxicated assault with a vehicle, court records from Travis County show. Two other women who were in Garcia-Rios's car, Paige Fonseca and Nancy Ramirez Casas, face negligence charges related to the incident, and all three defendants had been served with court papers as of Jan. 18. Vijay's civil lawsuit names Raising Cane's as a defendant and contends the restaurant's staff directed customers to wait on the sidewalk when the dining area reached capacity. The complaint alleges the business failed to provide physical protections, such as bollards, that would have kept waiting customers out of the path of vehicles. Breen asserted that Raising Cane's bears significant responsibility for the circumstances that exposed pedestrians to harm, and he said his client and her family hope the suit will prompt changes at similar establishments. The court filing asks a jury to hold the restaurant accountable and to encourage installation of sidewalk protections to prevent future injuries. The case now moves forward on both criminal and civil tracks, with a trial date set for the driver and ongoing civil litigation over damages and negligence. Prosecutors, defense lawyers and Raising Cane's have not filed statements in the court documents reviewed for this story.