DWI Is Not a Victimless Crime — Ever

Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) July 21, 2016 – Whether a car accident is a single rollover due to an inebriated driver or two vehicles were involved in a collision in which one or both drivers were intoxicated, the incident is not a victimless crime.

Drinking and driving is a crime. It is illegal. It kills and maims. It sends people to jail. It ruins people’s lives. Everyone knows they should not do it, and yet they still do, thinking nothing will happen to them and that they will not get caught. In Texas in 2015, DPS troopers arrested 270 intoxicated drivers. “And those are only the ones that were caught,” said Austin plaintiff’s DWI attorney, Bobby Lee. If 270 were caught, how many were not?

The very simple thing that many seem to miss in the drinking and driving equation is that there are choices involved and those choices affect others. There is no other way to look at it. When an individual chooses to drink to excess and then drive, that person taking his or her own life and the lives of others into his or her unsteady hands.

“You only have to listen to or read the news after a holiday long weekend to know that many lost their lives due to alcohol; people who would still be alive but for someone else drinking and driving,” Lee pointed out.

Consider the case of the young high school grad and his happy companions racing down the highway to celebrate their adulthood. The driver was extremely drunk. His passengers were as well. They were having a great time whooping and hollering. The young man rounded a steep curve and took it too wide. He couldn’t judge distance very well. The 18-wheeler saw them coming but could not stop. That night 5 young teens died.

There is also the story about a 21-year-old first year business student at a local college who went on a dream trip with two of her friends. The trip was fantastic and they were discussing it while driving home. They had just changed drivers for a break and the youngest member of the group was driving. She was not familiar with the highway she needed to take to reach Houston. She looked up a map on her cellphone while driving and drove into the oncoming lane of traffic.

The map was still displayed on the phone when police picked their way through the wreckage of what was left of the car. Only one person survived that wreck. The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured but was in deep shock. If that driver had not checked her cellphone all three would still be alive.
“Drinking is a choice. Drinking to excess is a choice. Drinking and driving is a choice. Stop and think. That is a choice too. It is worth losing your life or killing others because you wanted another drink and thought you could handle it and drive?” asked Lee.

When lives are lost because someone wanted to drink and get behind the wheel of a vehicle it is the greatest of travesties. It is a poor choice. It is a stupid choice. It is a choice that can kill and can haunt people for the rest of their lives. Do not drink and drive. Period.

To learn more, visit http://www.lgrlawfirm.com Lee, Gober & Reyna 11940 Jollyville Road #220-S Austin, Texas 78759 Phone: 512.478.8080