Waxahachie Personal Injury Attorney Agrees Drunk Driving An Issue in Texas
Jun 5, 2013
Waxahachie, TX (Law Firm Newswire) June 4, 2013 – Every 15 minutes in the U.S., someone is killed by a drunk driver.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a recommendation that the legal blood alcohol level be lowered to 0.05. The Texas office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has formally backed the new proposal, stating that the lower limit would save lives. Austin Police Chief, Art Acevedo, released a statement in which, while he did not formally endorse the new level, stated the change was worth “robust exploration and debate.”
“Driving under the influence continues to be a major concern in Texas and throughout the nation,” commented Waxahachie personal injury attorney John Hale.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, head of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, is not so certain. In 1999, Whitmire was chairing the same committee, when Texas lowered the blood alcohol limit from 0.1 to 0.08. But as studies show, a woman who weighs just 120 lbs. needs just one drink to reach a 0.05 blood alcohol limit. Whitmire suggests instead more efforts to educate the public about drunk driving and the need to use a designated driver.
Whitmire appears more inclined to support proposals for state-wide or federal-wide campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving. One particularly effective campaign has been used at the local level in Cleveland, Texas since 2002. There, students at Tarkington High School see firsthand, a demonstration of the fallout from drunk driving. The annual drill, “Forever Changed,” educates students about drunk driving.
Junior and senior students watch from the sidelines as emergency responders, local officials and classmates stage a fake drunk-driving-related car accident. One teen poses as the inebriated driver, uninjured by the accident. Other classmates play the roles of injured passengers. First responders arrive on the scene as if it were an actual accident and proceed to extract the victims and place them on stretchers.
The student “driver” is handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle. Parents arrive at the scene, pretending to be distraught. There is no hard data to show whether the drill makes any significant difference in how many Tarkington teens go on to drink and drive. But more than a decade later, the school continues to attempt to make a lasting impression.
A 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that driving under the influence of alcohol is highest among individuals ages 21 to 25. Approximately 15 percent of teens between the ages of 18 and 20 admitted to driving while intoxicated with the past 12 months.
John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury lawyer and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas, Texas. Learn more at The Hale Law Firm
The Hale Law Firm
100 Executive Court, Suite 3
Waxahachie, TX 75165
Call: 888.425.3911
- Calls From Concerned Citizens A Help In Combating Drunk Driving
Calls from passing motorists can help Texas police locate drunk drivers and get them off the road. Many of the calls emergency dispatchers receive must be transferred to other jurisdictions and the 911 callers may not be present to see the driver they suspected of driving while inebriated, but both Texas dispatchers and police have stated that passing motorists are a great help. The director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Jeff Miracle, says that he speaks to someone approximately once a month who feels they called 911 to report a potentially drunk driver, only to have to eventually give up […] - Texas Highways Safer Than They Were, Still Potentially Dangerous For Drivers
Though traffic fatality numbers have dropped over the past few years, Texas highways remain dangerous. Among the latest of traffic fatalities, the survivors of a man from East Texas who died have just filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful death. The suit alleges that a truck driver acted with negligence when he backed up his truck and an attached flat-bed trailer against oncoming traffic, which caused a fatal traffic accident. The accident happened in November 2012. According to the lawsuit, the driver of a Peterbilt truck which was hauling a flatbed trailer missed a turnoff in Franklin County. The driver continued […] - Drowsy Driving Is An Underreported Danger
A study recently released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has shed new light on the number of “drowsy driving” incidents. “Drowsy driving,” or falling asleep behind the wheel is an underreported and dangerous issue on the roadways. Because there is no definitive test to determine sleepiness behind the wheel, state reporting relies on driver self-reporting and police estimates. The NHTSA looked at motor vehicle accidents which resulted in fatalities across the U.S. during 2011. There were 29,757 fatal accidents reported; approximately 707 were assumed to be caused at least in part by drowsy driving. The NHTSA estimates […]
