How Do Dram Shop Laws Benefit Children?
Perhaps one of the most misused arguments in favor of a law or government program is that "it's for the children." People who use this argument often do so in order to stop a debate, instead of starting one. This will not be one of those occasions. I recently read about a horrific crash in...
Nip It In the Bottle: Better to Prevent DWI Crashes Than to Litigate Them After It’s Too Late.
We spend a lot of time writing about dram shop law, which provides an avenue to remedy for people injured due to an establishment's unlawful alcohol service. When someone is over-served at a bar or restaurant it often has dire consequences, especially if they choose to drive in their intoxicated state. While dram shop law...
Harris County Drunk Driving Chronicle
Texas continues to be infamous for leading the country in drunk driving fatalities. Partly due to its size, but also due to a high rate of drunk driving, Harris County (primarily Houston) contributes more to that dubious distinction than any other jurisdiction in the state. In an ideal world, we would be able to analyze,...
For DUI Victims, Crowdfunding Is Good But Dram Shop Law is Better.
These days news stories involving death or injury often end with a link to GoFundMe, a website designed for the Internet at large to participate in "crowdfunding." Crowdfunding is the practice of soliciting small donations from a very wide pool of donors toward a particular financial goal. This practice has a wide variety of applications,...
Is There A Better Argument for Dram Shop Law Than a Fatal Crash With a Drunk Bartender?
Anyone who has spent time sitting at a bar may have seen its tender have a few drinks. Sometimes it's just a beer over the course of a shift, and other times she takes a few shots in a row with a group of regulars. Most bartenders know and maintain their limits like professionals (if...
Only In Houston: Two DUI Drivers Hit Disabled Car in Fatal Crashes
I've mentioned before that Houston ranks uncomfortably highly in matters of drunk driving. Not only does it have the most DUI-related deaths of any Texas city, but it consistently ranks in the top 5 cities throughout the entire U.S. Sometimes it seems like Houston actually wants to remind everybody who wears that tarnished crown in...
Texas DUI Crashes Don’t Just Happen In the Late Hours and On Weekends.
Some people may think that fatal DUI accidents only occur during the times of day when people are most likely to be at a bar--late evening through early morning, after one work day ends and before the next begins. It's true that drunken collisions notably increase during this period, but it's worth remembering that almost...
How Do We Know that Most Wrong Way Drivers Are Drunk?
When we heard that two men were killed in a wrong-way collision shortly after midnight, New Year's Day, on I-35, near Wheatland Road, folks around the office wondered aloud whether or not alcohol or drugs may have played a role in the fatal accident. I don't want to discuss that in-depth, because the reporting about...
Can We Just Assume That Every Wrong-Way Driver is Drunk?
Wrong-way drivers are freaking scary. How does a driver even find himself on the wrong side of the road, let alone stay there long enough to crash? I have a theory about it, actually: Pretty much every wrong-way driver is a drunk driver. I hate to speculate and then be wrong, but when I read...
Why Aren’t Drunk Drivers Charged With Murder?
Drunk driving is a terrible crime. Unsuspecting victims are hurt and killed every day by this all-too-familiar pattern: Someone is over-served, stumbles out to his car to go home, and plows into another vehicle or pedestrian to dire effect. If a police investigation proves that the intoxicated driver was responsible for hurting someone, that driver...
