Collin County, TX — March 22, 2024, Carmen Silva, Albert Silva, Guadalupe Lugo, and two children were injured in an alleged drunk driver accident on Highway 205.
Authorities said they responded at around 9:41 p.m. to the crash scene north of Rockwall near F.M. 483.
According to investigations, 50-year-old Carmen Silva, 49-year-old Albert Silva, 51-year-old Guadalupe Lugo, and two children were in a Chrysler Town & Country going northbound on the highway. From oncoming lanes, authorities say a southbound Toyota Tacoma went left of center to pass an 18-wheeler. As a result, it hit the Chrysler head-on.
Due to the collision, Carmen Silva, Albert Silva, Guadalupe Lugo, and one of the children had reportedly serious injuries. The other child’s injuries were apparently less severe. Authorities say the Toyota driver was also seriously injured. They reported that the Toyota driver’s blood-alcohol content, taken around six hours after the crash, was below the legal limit. However, authorities believe the driver was intoxicated at the time of the crash, and they recommended multiple charges for intoxication assault.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
If these details are all accurate, it helps highlight an aspect of drunk driving crashes people don’t often consider. A lot of folks think there has to be a recorded, concrete BAC result above a .08 (the legal limit) to prove someone was intoxicated. That’s not necessarily true. Medical knowledge on how much alcohol the body metabolizes over a certain time period is pretty straight-forward. As such, any BAC can help determine how intoxicated someone was at a given time relative to when the tests were taken.
For example, when we litigate personal injury cases against bars for over-serving drivers and contributing to a crash, one thing we have to prove is that a driver was intoxicated. If we know that they left the bar, got into a wreck, then went to a hospital where their BAC was taken six hours later, we can have medical experts testify to what their BAC would have been at the time of the crash before it was metabolized. Over six hours, for example, someone would lose about as much alcohol as it would take to be over the legal limit.
Authorities can do this, as well. A BAC result even hours after a crash can be vital to a criminal investigation. That said, there’s no such thing as too much evidence. Hopefully authorities are gathering as much evidence as possible—cell phone records, where the driver had been drinking and how much they drank, potential witnesses to the driver’s behavior leading up to the crash—to ensure there are appropriate consequences for all of this.
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