Mario Garcia, 1 Injured in Alleged Drunk Driver Accident in Ector County, TX

Ector County, TX — October 30, 2025, Mario Garcia and one other were injured following an alleged drunk driver accident at around 9:00 p.m. along I-20.

Investigators said that the accident happened between Odessa and Monahans at FM 1053.

According to officials, 28-year-old Mario Garcia and another person were in a Ford F-150 going eastbound along the interstate. Another pickup was reportedly going westbound the wrong-way on eastbound lanes. This led to the vehicles colliding.

Due to the accident, Mario Garcia and the other driver were seriously injured. Authorities say that the wrong-way driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time. Additional details are unavailable.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

To be rather blunt, it would be more surprising if alcohol wasn’t a factor here. The reality is when someone gets on the wrong side of an interstate, it’s almost always due to intoxication. What’s more, though, is that the intoxication is usually extreme, and that raises two serious questions: Where did the alcohol come from, and was the wrong-way driver unlawfully over-served?

Put simply, it’s unlawful in Texas for bars and other similar establishments to serve people who are obviously intoxicated. For example, if someone is slurring their words and stumbling around, and a server knows they’ve had too much to drink, it would be against the law to serve that person. If the alcohol provider does so anyway, and it leads to people being hurt or killed, the alcohol providers can be held responsible for their actions.

Too often, this goes overlooked. Authorities understandably go to great lengths to see drunk drivers held accountable. But if the investigations just end there, it could allow a complicit, dangerous alcohol provider to continue business as usual, and more people are bound to get hurt.

That’s why investigations into wrong-way crashes like this need to extend beyond the accident scene. If what authorities say here is true, a driver was so extremely intoxicated that they couldn’t tell they were on the wrong side of a divided highway. In my experience handling cases against hundreds of negligent alcohol providers, any bar or restaurant serving a driver to that point almost certainly broke the law. That can’t simply go unpunished.