Fort Worth, TX — July 28, 2024, Maria Ochoa-Guzman and a child were injured due to an alleged drunk driver accident at 1:45 a.m. on Loop 820.
According to preliminary details, the incident happened along the eastbound lanes of I-20/Loop 820 in the area of Hawkins Center Drive.
Investigators said that 21-year-old Maria Ochoa-Guzman and a 3-year-old child were in a Honda Fit going eastbound on the interstate. Ochoa-Guzman reportedly slowed due to debris in the road, which is when a Nissan Altima crashed into Ochoa-Guzman from behind. Due to the collision, the child in Ochoa-Guzman’s vehicle had serious injuries while Ochoa-Guzman’s injuries were described as non-serious.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
The driver of the Nissan is accused of driving under the influence of alcohol, said to be approximately twice the legal limit. If that’s true, it’s important authorities also know where the alcohol came from. One of the reasons drunk driving is so common at this time of the morning is because bars close around this time, so many of their customers who were illegally over-served hit the roads trying to get home. Those alcohol providers can be subject to potential criminal investigations, fines, license suspensions, and liability for resulting injuries. Are authorities looking into that possibility here?
Unfortunately, it’s more common that authorities overlook potential complicit alcohol providers following these accidents. Once they have a driver they can charge, they tend to move on. Here’s the problem with that. Having handled hundreds of cases against negligent alcohol providers, I’ve seen how bars and other establishments who are never held accountable continue putting lives at risk. When they finally face appropriate consequences for their actions, they clean up their act. That means one less establishment over-serving people, which means fewer drunk driving accidents on our roads.
Every family I’ve worked with that I can recall obviously wanted to see accountability for the wrongs done to them. But when they knew their accident could help prevent others from getting hurt, they were keen to see to that, as well. So when authorities let alcohol providers off the hook for their role in a serious accident like this, it’s a disservice both to the victims and the community as a whole. It would be encouraging to hear authorities were taking those steps and being thorough here, but it would be far from the first time that addressing these issues required the victims and families taking the initiative.
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