OT/tragedy in Tarrant Co.

Late Sat. night several people stopped to help a stranded motorist near the small town of Burleson.

A truck plowed into them killing four - a mother and her daughter(who lived nearby), a man (father of 3 and youth pastor of a nearby church) and another good samaritan. Another is hospitalized in critical condition.

Police say alcohol is involved. (no big surprise) Here in Texas, if you are dwi and kill someone, you can be prosecuted for murder.

Such a tragedy. So many lives changed forever.

Nancy that is so sad. Indy police stopped a lady who was weaving and hit a couple of cars last week. Her blood alcohol level was .501. They were surprised she was even alive.

wow that"s horrible.

Years ago I might have felt a little sympathy for the driver. Not many people intend or expect to kill somebody on a ride home after a few drinks, you do it and you try to be careful.

But in this day and age, you KNOW the danger. We"ve all been well educated on how foolish it is.

You drive drunk today, and it"s a conscious, personal decision to not care about putting other people"s lives at risk.

I hope this person rots in jail for making that decision.

I don't know any of the folks involved but my girlfriend knew Brian, (the youth minister), and said he was a great guy. Terrible thing that happened.

Between drunks and people texting the Texas roads and highways have become a dangerous place.

Drunks are bad, but I think texting is worse. Tammy covers the whole half of the state. I go with her a lot. She averages at least one driver over the center line per day. Sometimes two or three. Many times they are half way in our lane, often it is a semi-truck.

I think a lot of drunks know they are drunk and try to be more careful.

But you wont ever see the "texters" treated like drunks.

Gene

We complain about guns and gun violence but drunk drivers kill more people every year and still we have to have the alcohol. I say we should register every car(sic) so that we know where the drunks are. One thing that bother me is drunks keep on driving even after killing someone. Lost 2 in NE Ohio last week because of drunk illegal alien driving wrong way on 4 lane without lights in the early morning.

Very sad to hear of things like this, the only thing I can think of is how dangerous the side of a road is in our current society. Highways while much worse, than a 2 lane state road, if your vehicle is disabled, I think it wise to limp it in off the road if possible without putting oneself in danger, and or quickly and safely get out of the vehicle, get a safe distance away (not always possible depending on your location) from it. Point is fooling around with it while near the road, white line etc, is extremely unsafe, even when you have safety devices, highly visible safety apparel like construction workers wear, better to call for help and wait it out safely away from it if possible, its amazing how many inattentive, distracted or intoxicated drivers are out there, can't forget this if you are a driver.

I had a fusible link in an LX mustang go off, mid 90's while in the south bronx on a highway, I was able to roll off onto an exit ramp, but immediately reacted, packed my few belongings into my back pack which was always on me, including my bag phone, (in those days) and was on the move, (reminded me being an RTO radio telegraph operator) called in AAA, confirmed the pick up as I was trying to get to safety, given the neighborhood, did not think I'd see that car again, feared for my safety immediately, off ramp on a busy highway and being Caucasian in a predominantly non Caucasian area. It is a game changer when a vehicle breaks down no doubt.

This happened right in front of me today. Texting has become worse than drunk driving.

Can"t remember the exact stats, but I think as many as 50% of vehicle wrecks are alcohol related.

I think texting is increasing as a cause of wrecks, but its harder to prove may not be able to get reliable stats.

That is terrible. So sad for all those families and yes, their lives are changed forever.

In MN, they put special plates on repeat offender's vehicles that are quite plain with white background and start with a large W - so police can spot them easier.

I agree with Jon F, texting is getting almost as bad. I have had so darn many people come over the center line at me - that I cannot even guess how many. I drive very defensively... it's like the old video game "Frogger" out there.

(Edit: spelling correction)

In a recent case here in Tx, guy had multiple dwi"s. They put a breath tester in his car so if he was over the limit, it wouldn"t start. So, he talked a friend into lending him their car, went drinking, had a wreck and killed some people.

At the very least, the friend will probably be sued and at the worst, be an accomplice to murder.

Who in their right mind would lend their car to someone with a history of dwi????

Texting stats hard to get? Some are coming out, depends some on state laws and record keeping, when state made specific "text" law instead of "inattentive driving". Tickets issued are on source for stats, court and coroners for convictions involving cell phone use are another- and locally some people in past year have been sentanced for deaths in vehicle collisions with the texting or cell use law read into record or as part of extended sentance, Wisconsin DOT is tracking a lot of it now with Milwaukee county, Dane county on data base as seperate, most of rest of state lumped together. Figure from beginning of year was maybe a 20% involvement of cell phone- text or calls- on injuries or deaths with a minor problem of drugs and alcohal sometimes also involved- percentage split when added gets more than 100%- a cell using over the drunk limit that also fails controled substance or seperate MJ tox screen can get counted 3 or 4 categories. Judges are adding a year or 2 for each contributing factor - but some times concurrent time in but added supervision afterward and mandatory testing for all types noted--and no cell phones allowed awhile. Cell phone records at a specific time can be brought to court and have been- like the train wreck in California 4(?) years ago where engineer was on phone with kids interestd in trains clib memebers. I had a lady on cell back into me in a parking lot- she lost left rear 1/4 panel and most of bumper on car, my old Ford E250 had paint smear on slightly bent bumper end- and this was the hospital eye clinic parking lot. Road construction worker hit by a texter that didn"t merge left in time had a partial message about "Im coming to construction zone soon and---" read into court. Worker severly injured but survived, unlike police officer last year in another state that was stopped for a car breakdown in traffic lane, had on all lights flashing but was rearended and crunched against breakdown vehicle. Now you get the idea why police motorcycle riders dismount/mount from right instead of left side- it is the soulder side on highway instead of the traffic side, and Alabama used to say pull over to the left shoulder on divided highways for stops- officer and driver get out of vehicles farthest side from traffic and if stopped vehicle hit the people outside are partially protected by the parked vehicle from the main traffic. Was a article about soome tunnels where cell phone use impossible so the tight tunnels had lower rate of incidents than outsides- but the next 2 miles from tunnels had about 30% more incidents than than highway average- English Channel tunnel or New York City? Alpine tunnels? A proposal in California was for a cell phone blocker emmiter on a couple stretchs of high crash highways, didn"t get far but it was debated some and apparently was a copy of a couple existing munincipal ordered "dead zones" in other countries. SO, while some drunks are allowed on road with breathalyser equipped cars-- maybe a cell abuser car could be ordered with a static generator installed- can"t use cell phone with running engine, still have cell for emergency use when parked, engine stopped. FCC would have to OK it perhaps. Something to think about. RN

As far as driving is concerned cell phones are the worst invention since booze.

Those are called "whiskey plates".

The Mn. drunk plates don't always have the W, they are the ones that start with 2 letters and then 4 numbers. They do mostly have the W on them but they are running out of numbers and the w is going away now.

A man I worked with at one time was killed by a drunk drive last Thanksgiving they found a half drank bottle of booze in her car the worst thing about it was she had her own children with her in the car at the time she still awaiting trial.

I used to drink and drive. A lot. But I don't drink very much anymore, and never drink and drive. I have no sympathy for drunks. I think the penalities ought to be much higher.

Somehow, I got this in the wrong area - was a reply to jon f. mn, regarding license plates for repeat DUI offenders.

I'm thinking then maybe they should switch to a pretty color combo... like neon glow-in-the dark green background with pretty bright pink letters/numbers.

almost every weekend local radio has 2 or 3 people
arrested for DUI some of them 2 or more times.
no license,ins.or valid tags.

He has probably had at least 2 previous DWIs for which he hired sleezy lawyers and go off with probation. Now it will take about 2 years to get him to trial. The lawyer will point that he is a changed man now, that he is teaching Sunday School, and volunteering in a soup kitchen for the homeless; at which time the jury will cry, and he will get probation again, AND kill again within 2 years. These people should NEVER be able to get a driver license in ANY state. And, if caught driving, 20 years mandatory, no parole allowed. Tom

Do you remember the guy. Several years back hit a cop on 35.51 DUI arrest and still out and driving.

Tragic for sure. Prayers for the families.
I had a friend and fellow biker killed in WI by a repeat offender.
A husband, father and brother on his way home from work on his bike.
Drunk pulled out of the bar, sped up and rear ended the bike.
I think it was his 7 offense and the 5th one causing an accident
with serious injury to someone else.
He didn't have a license, was on probation from previous offenses
and was awaiting trial on the one prior to this one.
There were so many bikes at the court house for that trial the
cops had to close the streets to normal traffic.
They didn't let him walk out that day. It was probably best that way.

just today I was on hwy 21 in iowa,two lane I was going 57 in 55 young girl on cell phone passed me on yellow line at intersection area.she didn't drive any faster after passing me and was all over road.after two miles I turned onto a gravel road cause I sure as hell didn't want to be a witness.i drove semi all over the country for thirty years. saw a lot of stupid stuff,surpriseing more aren't killed

"Police say alcohol is involved. (no big surprise) Here in Texas, if you are dwi and kill someone, you can be prosecuted for murder."

That's what they say but I remember a story where someone beat the murder charge because they were drunk and didn't intentionally set out to kill someone. In a case like this, I have no problem with the death penalty.

Despite drunk, distracted and stupid drivers, it is still safer to drive today than ever in history. There were about 5 deaths per million vehicle miles in the sixties, and about 4 per million in the seventies. We're now down to slightly over one death per million vehicle miles.

County I used to live in, we had a real good Supreme Court Judge. One of the most honorable and dignified men I've ever met. He served as a special judge in another county where a prominent citizen was on his 21st Felony DWI! Gave him 25-life. I never heard if he actually served the time or got out on appeal, but it sure made some heads turn.