Articles Tagged with Drunk Driving

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Drink responsibly this New Year’s Eve

(December 30, 2022) New Year’s Eve is tomorrow, and with most of San Antonio back in full swing for the holidays, it’s set to be a night full of celebration and excitement for the coming New Year. Why spoil the fun with a DWI charge? New Year’s Eve is the worst holiday for drunk driving. Encountering drunk drivers is 116% more likely on New Year’s Eve and results in fatalities every year in San Antonio and throughout the United States. Make responsible choices a part of your New Year’s resolutions, and drink responsibly this holiday weekend.

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Enjoy safe drinking this holiday season

(November 27, 2022) The holiday season is upon us, and though it has been a historically dry year, rain is often seen in our holiday forecasts. But with the holidays comes stressed-out drivers and a spike in intoxicated drivers on the road, and the rain combined with these factors makes driving during this holiday season a risky business. However, driving cannot be entirely avoided. It’s been a stress-filled year for everyone, and that can make it easy to make a devastating mistake on the road. Let’s take a look at some of the most common traffic incidents happening on San Antonio roads and how to avoid them, so you and your family can enjoy a safe holiday season.

Safe Driving in the Rain

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(November 2, 2022) Driving on Holiday nights is always risky when it comes to intoxicated drivers on the road, but this is especially true for Halloween night. Getting seriously hurt or losing a loved one is not the spooky most people expect on this festive occasion. Unfortunately, recent statistics found that drunk drivers were involved in 44% of fatal crashes on Halloween weekend. When not fatal, accidents involving drunk drivers almost always involve severe injuries like Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), which can change the victim’s life forever. Fatal pedestrian accidents are also up on Halloween, and 23% of these accidents involved a driver or motorcyclist with a BAC of 0.08% or higher.

Spinal Cord Injury and Drunk Driving

Auto accidents are the leading cause of Spinal Cord Injury in the United States for those ages 16-30 and affect a staggering 450,000 people annually. They account for slightly less than half of all new cases of Spinal Cord Injury in the United States every year. Even more tragic is the fact that alcohol is involved 25% of the time. Additionally, half of these spinal cord injuries are complete, meaning that the victim permanently loses all feeling in the lower part of their body. Spinal cord injuries alter a person’s life forever – and the leading cause of this tragedy is an entirely preventable one. That’s scary.

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Drunk driving claims hundreds of lives every year in Texas

(September 6, 2022) San Antonio is ranked among the most deadly cities in the United States for drunk driving over the holidays. In an effort to prevent as much tragedy as possible, the TxDOT worked with law enforcement agencies across San Antonio to increase DWI patrols over Labor Day Weekend. Last year, the statewide fatality report due to drunk driving was a staggering 963 persons. Despite the increased efforts of law enforcement, two separate DWI incidents resulted in one pedestrian death in one night, September 3, 2022. Thousands of families are affected by drunk drivers every year, and law enforcement efforts can only do so much to stop drunk driving in Texas. In this article, we’ll talk about driving safely during the holidays and how to report drunk drivers when you see them on the roads.

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Drunk driving has serious consequences.

Drunk Driver Hits, Kills O’Conner Highschool Graduate

(August 31, 2022) On August 27, 2022, a former O’Connor High School football player was thrown off a bridge and killed while providing assistance to stranded students in the Fort Worth area, as reported by My San Antonio News. Charles Trammell III, 20, was helping stranded students change a flat tire on the access road to I-30 when he was struck by a driver who is suspected of being intoxicated. The force of the impact sent him flying off of Highway 287 ramp to I-30 westbound at around 9 p.m., causing him to fall more than sixty feet below. The driver, Miguel Angel Lopez, has since been charged with intoxicated vehicular manslaughter and an accident involving death. Drunk driving is a big problem for Texas drivers. In this article, we’ll look at the difference between a DWI and a DUI charge and what the implications of an intoxication manslaughter charge are in San Antonio.

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(May 11, 2022) An elderly woman was killed by a suspected drunk driver while on a neighborhood walk with her son late yesterday morning on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, as reported by KSAT News. The woman, Irma Lozano, age 78, had stopped for a few moments to chat with a neighbor on the sidewalk near Oak Hill Road while her son moved on a little way. It was then that a driver of a gray Ford Edge jumped the curb and drove straight into the woman right in front of her neighbor’s eyes. The driver continued at high speed until crashing into a nearby tree, “she hit it so hard it came out with a root,” Lily Delgado, the neighbor who was speaking to Irma Lozano, told KSAT. Irma Lozano died at the scene. The woman who was driving the car was transported to the hospital by ambulance, where the police charged her with intoxicated manslaughter. Her condition is unknown, and her name has not been released.

Intoxicated drivers claim many lives every year. Many drivers understand they are always accepting some risk when they get behind the wheel of an automobile, but to be killed by another’s careless and selfish actions when you were simply trying to enjoy a neighborhood stroll with your family is inexcusable. The Law Office of Carabin Shaw has been representing the victims of DUI accidents in San Antonio for 30 years, and if you have suffered the loss of a loved one due to another’s negligent actions, we stand ready to assist you in receiving your full legal compensation.

Have you been injured or lost a loved one in a DUI or DWI accident in San Antonio or the surrounding area?

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(Sunday, March 27th) Just after midnight near SE Military Drive, a deadly accident occurred involving an intoxicated driver, as reported by Fox News. Police reported that the driver of the 2006 Chevy trailblazer swerved into oncoming traffic, striking a 2004 Buick Rendezvous. As a result of the head-on collision, the driver of the Buick, a woman, was ejected from the vehicle. Unfortunately, she was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the chevy had to be cut from the vehicle by the local fire department and was taken to the hospital in critical condition. It was there that he was found to be intoxicated, and the police reported that he would be booked by proxy for intoxication manslaughter. There was a passenger, another woman, in the now-deceased woman’s Buick. She was injured but in stable condition at the hospital. The road had to be blocked off for several hours during the investigation and clean-up. 

Drunk Driving in Texas

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 29 people die every day due to an intoxicated driver in the United States. This is the equivalent of one death every fifty minutes. The State of Texas has some of the highest rates of accidents involving impaired driving in the country. The Texas Department of Transportation reported 813 fatal crashes and 914 fatalities caused by impaired drivers in 2020. Drunk driving comes with serious consequences and affects thousands of people every year. The law office of Carabin Shaw has been representing the drivers of San Antonio and the surrounding area for nearly 30 years. We have the tools and expertise to help. Contact our firm today.

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On January 30, a driver was arrested for Driving While Impaired (DWI) after fatally striking a pedestrian on the Northwest Side of San Antonio, according to KSAT News. The incident took place in the early morning at 2:18 AM on the 3600 block of Northwest Loop 410, in an area where pedestrians are prohibited from crossing. As reported by KSAT News, the driver of the gray Dodge Charger remained at the scene until the authorities arrived but were arrested when they showed signs of intoxication. They also reported that the pedestrian who was killed at the scene has not yet been identified. 

Drunk driving is entirely preventable and irresponsible, yet it affects thousands of Texans every year. Txdot.gov reported that 963 people were killed, and 2,114 suffered serious injuries due to DWI or DUI in 2020 alone. According to the center for disease control and prevention (CDC), DUIs account for 28% of all traffic fatalities in the United States and 17% (214) of all traffic-related deaths of those ages 0 to 14 years. This should not be. There are many ways to avoid driving while intoxicated or driving under influence in 2022, including public transportation, hiring a taxi or a rideshare service, or simply having a designated driver. At the Carabin Shaw Law Firm, we encourage everyone to drive responsibly and keep their community safe. 

Have you been injured in a DUI Accident in San Antonio, Texas? 

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In San Antonio, a woman was hospitalized overnight after crashing on UTSA Boulevard. Police stated she was intoxicated and driving at high speeds. The crash occurred on Friday at roughly 1:45 a.m. in the 6500 block of UTSA Boulevard, between Valero Way and Babcock Road. Police stated the 20-year-old woman was driving a green 2006 Ford Focus westbound at high speeds and unsuccessfully attempted a turn. 

The woman rolled her car over several times when she overcorrected and collided with a utility pole. Police stated that the car spun around the utility pole and landed on its roof. She had to get taken out of the car because she was stuck inside. Her injuries were considered not critical after being taken to University Hospital. Police stated that after evaluating her, she was intoxicated. The accident is currently under investigation.

An individual in Texas is considered legally intoxicated and can be arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) with a BAC (blood or breath alcohol concentration) of .08. However, an individual is also intoxicated if impaired because of alcohol or other drugs regardless of BAC.

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On Saturday night, an individual driving a Dodge Ram was drinking and driving on the road. This individual’s actions led to an accident on the Northwest side that ended in the tragic loss of a woman’s life and severely injured four individuals. This event happened at around 6 p.m. on Saturday at the intersection of Culebra Road and Zarzamora Street. The individual driving a Dodge Ram was heading east on Culebra when he ran a red light and collided with a Chevrolet Silverado heading south through the intersection. The force of the collision sent the Chevrolet Silverado through the intersection and into a Jeep Patriot that was stopped in the right northbound lane of Zarazomora. The drunk driver was charged with manslaughter and intoxication assault.

The 53-year-old woman who tragically lost her life was seated in the rear of the Chevrolet Silverado. The police stated that she was not wearing a seatbelt. She was pronounced dead at the scene by the San Antonio Fire Department. There were three other passengers in the Chevrolet Silverado that were transported to University Hospital because they sustained severe injuries. In addition, an occupant in the Jeep was taken to Brooke Amy Medical Center due to severe injuries. 

Police stated, the individual driving the Dodge Ram was transported to University Hospital after sustaining minor injuries. The police determined that the Dodge Ram driver, who was not identified, was intoxicated.

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