Auto Accidents: Drunk Driving

David Chacon (19) of Houston is being charged with a felony charge for Intoxication Assault and a felony charge for Failure to Stop and Render Aid after running a stop sign and then crashing his pickup into a home and critically injuring 4-month-old Elizabeth Cedillo, who was sleeping in a front room at her home at the time of the incident. Both charges are third-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Police have not indicated how or where David Chacon, a “minor” would have obtained the alcohol.

The latest information on Elizabeth Cedillo’s condition is that she was on life support Monday at a Houston hospital. Prosecutors say that they will upgrade the charges to Intoxication Manslaugher if Elizabeth dies from her injuries.

Sadly, cases such as this where a suspected drunk driver loses control and crashes into a home or a business and seriously injures or kills someone are not uncommon. For example:

Michael Bentley, 21, of Roanoke, was killed in February of 2009 when a 20-year-old Grapevine man crashed into a sign at First Presbyterian Church of Grapevine. The crash occurred on a Sunday night as the driver of a 2006 Ford Focus lost control of the Ford Focus he was driving, and it flipped before hitting the church sign. The driver was held by Grapevine police suspicion of intoxication manslaughter.

In April of 2008, SMU student China Stone was lying on her sofa when Brian Adams, a neighbor, drove his SUV through the front entrance of Stone’s residence. The crash threw Stone’s body from the sofa and pinned Stone against the wall. Stone was hospitalized as a result of the incident while police arrested Mr. Adams for suspicion of intoxication assault.

Montes Law Group, P.C.

Rachel Montes

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100

Irvng, Texas 75063

Telephone: (214) 522-9401

Facebook @ Montes Law Group, P.C.

An off-duty Fort Worth police officer has been charged with intoxication assault after crashing his truck into a Fort Worth home on Friday, April 23, 2010. According to the Fort Worth police department, officer Michael L. Buchanan’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Investigators said the officer drove his Dodge truck through the side of a home in the 11300 block of Brownfield Road, knocking the two people out of bed. The officer is claiming he fell asleep at the wheel, but he has not offered an explanation for the alcohol levels in his blood. Not surprisingly, the homeowner Maria Garcia is not persuaded by the “I fell asleep defense” that is often raised in these situations. Mrs. Garcia commented that, “We have a big front yard. And for him to have gone across the street and into my bedroom, I just had to know, was he drunk, what happened.”

Officer Buchanan is on restricted duty pending the outcome of an administrative and criminal investigation.

Drunk driving is clearly a problem, and the problem reaches out across all walks of life. Each year, several members of various police agencies are charged with drunk driving. Despite the fact that we count on these police officers to be in control and to enforce the laws against drunk driving, we continue to see stories such as this where it is the officer who is charged with an alcohol related offense. These first responders are often the first ones to arrive at the scene of drunk driving wrecks, and they see first hand the injuries, the deaths and the tragedies associated with drunk driving, yet the story repeats itself. We need better laws to punish drunk drivers and to discourage drunk driving because drunk driving is a danger that affects all of us.

Montes Law Group, L.L.P.

Attorneys: Rachel Montes and Tom Herald

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100

Irving, Texas 75063

Telephone: (214) 522-9401

Facebook at Montes Law Group, LLP

Kandace Hull (30) and her daughter Autumn (14) were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by John Barton (29). Mrs. Hull was pronounced dead at the scene, and her daughter Autum later passed away at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Police report that John Barton (29) was intoxicated at the time of the collision. Police say that collision took place around 2:00 A.M. Easter morning as Barton switched lanes at a high rate of speed and rear-ended Kandace Hull’s Nissan Sentra, causing both vehicles to go into a sping and propelling the Hull’s vehicle approximately 600 feet down Interstate 35E near Highway 121 in Lewisville, Texas. “Speed is a possible factor involved in this,” Lynn said. “There was a severe impact – a front-to-back impact – which pushed the trunk area of the Nissan into the passenger compartment.”

In addition, to the tragic deaths of Mrs. Hull and her daughter, her husband Anthony “Tony” Hull and two other children were also injured in the collision and were transported to area hospitals. Tony Hull is reported to be in serious condition. The condition of the children have not been released.

This incident is obviously drawing the attention of police, prosecutors and the public not only because of the seriousness of the wreck, but also because this is fourth time Barton has been arrested for an incident connected with drunken driving. He has two prior DWI charges in Denton County and one in Tarrant County. One indicator that the prosecutors are taking a very serious approach to this case is the fact that the charges for intoxication manslaughter have been upgraded to murder because of John Barton’s previous record of drunk driving. In addition, Barton is being charged with counts of intoxication assault.

Barton and a passenger in his vehicle were not injured. According to public records, Barton has served jail time for drunken driving and was free on parole.

No information has been released about where John Barton may have purchased or consumed the alcoholic beverages in the hours prior to the collision. In Texas, commercial establishments that sell alcoholic beverages can be held liable for serving alcoholic beverages to a person who is under the age of 21 (“a minor” under Texas law) or for serving a person who is obviously intoxicated. Bars and restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages are supposed to have measures in place to ensure that only persons of legal age are sold and permitted to consume alcoholic beverages on the premises. Then, for those customers who are of legal age to purchase and to consume alcoholic beverages, the bar and the servers have a legal obligation not to serve their patrons so much alcohol that the patron becomes intoxicated. Further, if a patron does become obviously intoxicated that bar should take steps to arrange for alternate transportation to protect not only their patron from being injured but to also to protect the public from being involved in a collision with an intoxicated driver.

We are trying to get a grass roots campaign for support of new legislation that may change those numbers and save lives by trying to prevent drivers who have already been convicted of drug and alcohol related offenses from being sold alcohol.

The Problem: Far too often when you hear a story that a drunk driver killed someone in a wreck, you also hear that the drunk driver had previously been convicted of drunk driving and was on probation for those charges at the time of the wreck. The question is why are people who are on probation for drug and alcohol related charges being allowed to purchase alcohol when the conditions of their probation specifically state that they are not permitted to purchase or to consume alcohol. The answer is simple. Businesses that sell alcohol have no way of knowing that a customer is on probation and is not permitted to purchase or to consume alcohol. As a result, if the customer presents a valid ID, they are able to purchase the alcohol.

Stop the Insanity

We need to a way to make it obvious to any seller of alcohol that the person who is purchasing the alcohol is not permitted to purchase or to consume alcoholic beverages. This can be accomplished by enacting new laws that require a change in driver’s licenses and identification cards, and the presentment of those forms of identification any time that a person purchases alcohol regardless of his or her age. The fundamental steps that can be taken at little to no cost to the citizens of the State of Texas are:

1. Require that anytime someone is put on probation for an alcohol or drug related offense, that the terms of probation include a prohibition from purchasing or consuming any alcoholic beverages. This measure is usually already included in terms of most probations involving drugs and alcohol.

2. Require that to be eligible for probation, any person who is convicted of a drug or alcohol related offense, either obtain a new Texas Identification Card or Driver’s License which changes the profile of the identification card to the same profile as persons under the age of 21 years of age and that is marked with the words “No Alcohol.” All of the fees for obtaining the new identification would be paid by the offenders.

3. Require that any person or company that sells, serves or provides alcoholic beverages card each person to whom alcohol is sold or provided regardless of the age of the person who is purchasing or receiving the alcoholic beverage.

4. Make it illegal to sell, serve or to provide alcoholic beverages to any person who presents an identification card with the words “No Alcohol.”

Obviously, this legislation will not stop all drunk driving, but it may cut down on some of the worst offenders, and we believe it is a reasonable and cost effective way of reducing drunk driving incidents and saving lives.

If you agree with us, we would appreciate your joining our Facebook family, and leaving a brief comment that you support this effort. Then, please tell as many of your friends and family to do the same so that we can have some momentum as we continue to try to meet with State Legislators to do something to make Texas a safer place for all of us. After all, Texas deserves to be #1, but #1 in safety. You can find us on Facebook by searching for “Montes Herald Law Group, LLP.”

Montes Law Group, PC

Attorney: Rachel Montes

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100
Irving, Texas 75063
Telephone (214) 522-9401

Calvin McGowan, (19), of McKinney, faces driving while intoxicated and hit-and-run charges after plowing a truck through a Starbucks located in the 3500 block of Preston Road, Frisco, Texas. In addition, Richard Evans, (38), a passenger in the truck Calvin McGowan is accused of driving, also faces a public intoxication charge. A Frisco, The Dodge truck had plowed through the front of the coffee shop and ended up almost 20 feet inside the store.

After driving through the Starbuck’s restaurant, the driver failed to stop at the scene and was observed by a police officer on Friday zooming by, dragging a chair and a table and showering sparks all over the road. Fortunately, no one was on the patio or inside the store at the time of the incident and therefore no patrons or employees were physically injured.

McGowan attempted to claim that the officers used excessive force on him. However, Sgt Adam Henderson of the Frisco Police had a different version of the events. Sgt. Henderson reported that the video from the patrol unit shows McGowan lifting his head and hitting it on the ground claiming the officers hit his head, but that the video shows the officer was more than four feet away from McGowan at the time.

In addition to the charges against McGowan and Evans, The Frisco police are also investigating the possibility that McGowan, a minor, was served alcohol at a nearby restaurant. That case will be handled by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). It is a crime for a restaurant to serve a minor alcohol, and in Texas, anyone under the age of 21 is considered a “minor” for purposes of determining whether the person is of legal drinking age. Both the restaurant and the server who serve alcoholic beverages to a minor can be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the incident.

Because McGowan was not of legal drinking age, he can be charged with driving under the influence if he has any detectable amount of alcohol in his blood system because he should have never been served any alcohol at the restaurant. §106.041 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code.

Further, the restaurant and the server also have a legal responsibility to not serve its patrons, even adults, to the point that they become obviously intoxicated because at that point people are considered to have lost control of their physical and mental faculties and become a danger to themselves and to others. §2.02 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code and§49.02 of the Texas Penal Code. The most pressing concern at this point for any restaurant is that an intoxicated patron will get behind the wheel of an automobile and drive while intoxicated and either kill or seriously injure themselves or someone else or cause damage to the property of others. This concern needs to be paramount in the mind of the restaurant as well as all of the servers, bartenders and managers. After all, Texas has led the nation over the past few years not only in the number of alcohol related wrecks, but also in the number of deaths and injuries in alcohol-related accidents.

When the TABC investigates a case such as this, it has the power to present evidence at a hearing to determine whether the restaurant should lose its liquor license. As part of those investigations and hearings, the TABC is not limited to focusing on whether a server provided or sold alcohol to a minor, it can also look into whether Mr. Evans was over-served alcohol at the restaurant. In addition, TABC can investigate whether Mr. Evans purchased alcohol for a minor as only certain family members or guardians can purchase or furnish alcohol to a minor. §106.06 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code.

We hope that you and your friends and family are never forced to deal with the senseless tragedy that a drunk driver can bring. Before you find yourself in that situation, we encourage everyone to get involved in the fight against drunk driving. We encourage people to support Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and its efforts to stop and to discourage drunk driving. If you have never been involved with MADD, one easy way to get familiar with MADD is to consider participating in the WALK LIKE MADD event being held in Dallas and in Austin on April 24, 2010 or visit their website for other ways to get involved with MADD. We will be at the event, and hope to see you there.

In addition to encouraging people to get involved with organizations such as MADD, we are also attempting to gather a grass roots support for our efforts to get new laws written to further reduce the problem of drunk driving in Texas. We are trying to get support for new laws that will make it easier for bars, restaurants and servers who are trying to be responsible and trying to follow the law to identify people who should not be served alcoholic beverages. Specifically, we want to target people who have been convicted of alcohol or drug related crimes and who are on probation for those offenses because judges in those cases typically issue an order which makes it illegal for those people to purchase or to consume alcoholic beverages while they are on probation. By forcing people who have been convicted of drug or alcohol related offenses to get a new driver’s license or a new identification card that clearly displays information which makes it obvious that it is illegal for that person to purchase or to consume alcoholic beverages, hopefully we can reduce the number of repeat offenders and drunk driving wrecks.

Please visit our FACEBOOK page (search for Montes Herald Law Group) and view our DISCUSSION on DRUNK DRIVING PROPOSAL FOR NEW LEGISLATION for more information on our proposal. If you support this proposal, we need your help. We are trying to get a meeting with legislators next year and to show them that there is already support for this proposal. If you want to show your support for this proposal, the only way we currently have to document that support is for you to leave a comment (even something as short as, “I support this proposal.”) or even a more personal story of why you feel this proposal would help or how you believe it could have helped you.

We understand that there will always be some bars, some restaurants and servers that will openly disregard the law, and that will continue engage in dangerous, illegal behavior such as serving alcoholic beverages to minors knowing the person is underage or by failing to card such minors, or by serving people even far beyond the point that the patron is obviously intoxicated either because they do not care about the law or because they put profits above their legal obligations. However, we believe that there are plenty of restaurants, bars and servers that would comply with this law and make it more difficult for those who have already shown themselves to have a problem with alcohol and drugs to purchase alcohol and to drive drunk.

Rachel E. Montes

Montes Law Group, P.C.

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100

Irving, Texas 75063

(214) 522-9401 Telephone

At Montes Law Group, P.C., we are trying to work with MADD to get support for new legislation to reduce incidents of drunk driving in Texas. Two sobering facts point to the need for tougher laws against drunk driving in Texas.

1. Texas ranks #1 in the country for alcohol-related traffic fatalities (NHTSA, 2006 and 2007).
2. In 2006 alone, NHTSA estimated 1,569 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in Texas.

We are trying to get a grass roots campaign for support of new legislation that may change those numbers and save lives by trying to prevent drivers who have already been convicted of drug and alcohol related offenses from being sold alcohol.

The Problem: Far too often when you hear a story that a drunk driver killed someone in a wreck, you also hear that the drunk driver had previously been convicted of drunk driving and was on probation for those charges at the time of the wreck. The question is why are people who are on probation for drug and alcohol related charges being allowed to purchase alcohol when the conditions of their probation specifically state that they are not permitted to purchase or to consume alcohol. The answer is simple. Businesses that sell alcohol have no way of knowing that a customer is on probation and is not permitted to purchase or to consume alcohol. As a result, if the customer presents a valid ID, they are able to purchase the alcohol.

The Solution: We need to a way to make it obvious to any seller of alcohol that the person who is purchasing the alcohol is not permitted to purchase or to consume alcoholic beverages. This can be accomplished by enacting new laws that require a change in driver’s licenses and identification cards, and the presentment of those forms of identification any time that a person purchases alcohol regardless of his or her age. The fundamental steps that can be taken at little to no cost to the citizens of the State of Texas are:

1. Require that anytime someone is put on probation for an alcohol or drug related offense, that the terms of probation include a prohibition from purchasing or consuming any alcoholic beverages. This measure is usually already included in terms of most probations involving drugs and alcohol.
2. Require that to be eligible for probation, any person who is convicted of a drug or alcohol related offense, either obtain a new Texas Identification Card or Driver’s License which changes the profile of the identification card to the same profile as persons under the age of 21 years of age and that is marked with the words “No Alcohol.” All of the fees for obtaining the new identification would be paid by the offenders.
3. Require that any person or company that sells, serves or provides alcoholic beverages card each person to whom alcohol is sold or provided regardless of the age of the person who is purchasing or receiving the alcoholic beverage.
4. Make it illegal to sell, serve or to provide alcoholic beverages to any person who presents an identification card with the words “No Alcohol.”

Obviously, this legislation will not stop all drunk driving, but it may cut down on some of the worst offenders, and we believe it is a reasonable and cost effective way of reducing drunk driving incidents and saving lives.

If you agree with us, we would appreciate your joining our Facebook family, and leaving a brief comment that you support this effort. Then, please tell as many of your friends and family to do the same so that we can have some momentum as we continue to try to meet with State Legislators to do something to make Texas a safer place for all of us. After all, Texas deserves to be #1, but #1 in safety. You can find us on Facebook by searching for “Montes Law Group,P.C”

Tuesday was a deadly day for drivers near Van Alstine, Texas as police responded to 2 separate head on collisions.

Around 7:00 PM on State Highway 75 and County Line Road, police say a female driver headed south in the northbound lanes and collided head-on with a car headed north. That driver was also taken to Wilson N. Jones. According to police they suspect the crash was alcohol-related, and that charges are pending against the wrong way driver. Meanwhile, both drivers involved in this accident were transported to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman in critical condition.

Around 8:00 PM the same night wrecks occurred on State Highway 75 within an hour. Around nine o’clock Monday night, police began receiving 911 calls that a driver of a Ford Explorer was headed the wrong way down highway 75 from Sherman into Van Alstyne. Although officers tried warn approaching vehicles and to get the driver to pull over, she ended up crashing into a Toyota Corrolla head-on at approximately 70 miles per hour. Both drivers were taken to Wilson N. Jones in Sherman with serious injuries. Hien Vuong, the driver of the Toyota, a 64-year-old woman from Garland, died from her injuries. The wrong way driver, Bobbi Elvington (44) of Sherman was released from the hospital and booked into the Grayon County Jail for Intoxication Manslaughter.

Sadly, incidents of drunk driving in Texas and across the nation continue to occur. On average, someone is killed by a drunk driver every 40 minutes. (NHTSA 2007 – Traffic Safety Annual Assessment: Alcohol Impaired Driving Fatalities). In 2007 alone, an estimated 12,998 people were killed in the United States in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. Even scarier is the fact that Texas leads the nation in drunk driving incidents. Texas ranks #1 in the country for alcohol-related traffic fatalities (NHTSA, 2006 and 2007). In 2006 alone, NHTSA estimated 1,569 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in Texas.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver, contact Rachel Montes or Tom Herald for a free case evaluation if you have been injured in a wreck by a drunk driver. Our firm handles cases all across Texas, including Grayson County, Collin, Denton, Dallas, Tarrant, Travis, Harris and San Patricio counties as well as other Texas counties. In these cases, we believe it is extremely important to not only focus on the loss of your loved ones, but also to do what we can to get justice and to hold drunk drivers accountable for their actions. We are a supporter of MADD and are trying to get new legislation to further reduce incidents of drunk driving.

Our main office is located in Irving, Texas just a few miles from DFW Airport and Love Field, and we can quickly come to visit you.