Dallas, TX — January 1, 2025, Arturo Martinez Gonzalez, Anthony Hernandez, Mario De La Paz, and a teen were killed in an alleged drunk driver accident.
Preliminary statements from Mesquite Police officials say that the crash occurred at around 1:44 a.m., east of Dallas near I-20 and F.M. 740.
According to officials, 47-year-old Arturo Martinez Gonzalez, 19-year-old Anthony Hernandez, 19-year-old Mario De La Paz, and a 15-year-old were in a vehicle along the outside shoulder of the interstate. They reportedly stopped to change a tire. While there, a passing vehicle went onto the shoulder, crashing into the stopped vehicle. As a result, Martinez Gonzalez, Hernandez, De La Paz, and the 15-year-old were all killed.
Authorities allege that the driver who hit the victims was intoxicated at the time. There appear to be pending charges for intoxication manslaughter. The incident remains under investigation.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
I’ve handled hundreds of alcohol-related accident cases over the course of three decades. Overnight on New Year’s Eve is one of the most dangerous nights of the year for drunk driving accidents—especially around the time bars close. Every year, we see devastating accidents like this all over the state. Inevitably, members of the community bring up the same concerns: How do we stop these accidents? How can we prevent others from suffering the kind of harm the families involved here have suffered? Who can we hold accountable? Well, that conversation has to include the possible actions of negligent alcohol providers who also contribute to these accidents. Let me explain
Anyone who has been out on a busy night has likely seen servers unlawfully over-serving people who were obviously intoxicated—showing signs like slurred speech, stumbling around, glassy-eyed, drinking a lot of alcohol in a short amount of time, etc. Just imagine how much that happens on a drinking holiday like New Year’s Eve. In Texas, alcohol providers can be held accountable when they over-serve patrons. Simply put, if an alcohol provider like a bar, restaurant, or club over-serves someone, it exposes them to potential criminal investigations, fines, and liability if the intoxication gets people hurt or killed.
What makes this important is that these legal avenues aren’t just punishments. Like I said, I’ve had hundreds of cases involving drunk drivers who were unlawfully over-served by alcohol providers. Families understandably want to see consequences for those who harm them. But more than that, they’re keen on any opportunity for their hardships to help prevent other families from suffering the same way they did. Generally, when alcohol providers are actually held accountable for their actions, they clean up their act. I can’t recall a single establishment who didn’t right the ship and start following the rules after we held them accountable for their role in a serious drunk driving accident. Had they been left to their old ways, they’d likely continue breaking the rules, and more people would eventually get hurt.
So as understandable as it is that people focus on the actions of drunk drivers after an accident like this, there needs to be more pressure from the community for authorities to find out who served those drivers to the point people got killed. Maybe authorities are looking into that right now, but my experience tells me never to take that for granted. If authorities are being too narrow in the scope of their investigations, that needs to be addressed as soon as possible while there is still ample evidence available to ensure all wrongdoers responsible for this deadly accident answer for their actions.
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