Birthday Celebration Ends in Tragedy
Cedric and Lauren Davis, both 26 years old, had been married for just over a year. Lauren surprised her husband with the perfect birthday gift — tickets to a Dallas Mavericks game.
As the young couple walked from a restaurant toward the AAC Friday night, their lives were cut tragically short when the drunk driver (pictured here) ran into them.
Kevin Christman sped through a red light at the intersection of 1900 Moody Street and 2500 Harry Hines Boulevard and T-boned another car. He continued driving straight and slammed into the Davises on the sidewalk.
It was only 7 p.m. It’s hard to imagine that someone could be that drunk at that time of the day. But then, it’s hard to imagine that any person — knowing well the tragic consequences — would drive while intoxicated at any time of the day.
And to add to the tragic timing, that evening, we in North Texas and people all over the world were reeling from the devastating terror attacks in Paris that had just happened.
The crash investigation will likely reveal the hours before the deadly DWI accident. The 28 year-old driver faces two counts of intoxication manslaughter that carry lengthy prison sentences.
Lauran was a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where Cedric was a student. He also worked full time. The couple was active in their church and went on a mission trip last year to rebuild a church that had been destroyed in an earthquake in Chile.
But this criminal’s decision to have one too many before climbing behind the wheel has ended their lives and shattered the lives of their families and friends. What a heart-breaking story.
DWI Drivers Put Every One at Risk in Texas
he Texas Department of Transportation’s 2014 Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics, including DUI fatalities in Texas, reveals that of the shocking number of 1,041 people killed by drunk drivers that year
- 37 were pedestrians
- 163 were passengers in automobiles being driven by drunk drivers
- 163 were people in other automobiles
- 677 — the clear majority – were the drunk drivers themselves
Fatally injured drivers in Texas are routinely tested for alcohol. Almost 40 percent of drivers killed in car crashes had a blood alcohol concentration over our state’s limit of .08 percent.