Far Too Many Repeat Offenders Are On Our Roads
16 year-old Joshua Hayden was driving home from the grocery store in Houston when a vehicle turned into his lane and crashed into his car head on. Thankfully the teen was not injured in the crash.
The man who hit him, Donald Middleton, ran into a convenience store and begged to be hidden from police. He had good cause to believe he would be arrested. He had been driving drunk — again.
Middleton had an unbelievable eight previous DWI convictions. Yet the 56 year-old man had climbed behind the wheel once again extremely intoxicated. His blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was .184 — more than twice the legal limit.
Maybe he felt immune from justice, considering how lenient his previous sentences had been. He was convicted for his eighth DWI in 2008 after he rear-ended another car and only served four years. He wasn’t legally a habitual offender until DWI #9 and was still allowed to drive.
Weatherford Man Wasn’t Put Away Until His 12th DWI Last Year
A man named Ivy Ray Eberhardt was arrested with a whopping blood alcohol concentration of .303 percent. He was sentenced by a Parker County judge to life in prison — finally. Then he was able to escape to Colorado where he continued driving.
Another Presumable DWI Takes Lives Of Five Cyclists On Same Day
On Wednesday, the same day Middleton was sentenced in Houston, another drunken driver plowed down bikers in Michigan, killing five and injuring four. During the half-hour before the fatal crash, police in three jurisdictions received calls from the public who saw the man driving his pickup truck erratically. Upon hitting the bicyclists, the man fled the scene. He had been at the lake fishing all day and had to have been drinking.
What is going on out there?
DWIs Are a Huge Problem in Texas
Don’t think this affects you? We have more drunk driving deaths in Texas than any other state. Just in 2014 here in Dallas and Tarrant Counties there were more than 3,000 collisions caused by intoxicated drivers. Tragically, 121 people were killed.
Texas law holds that driving with these blood alcohol concentrations is illegal:
- 21 years old or older: 0.08%
- Commercial drivers: 0.04%
- Younger than 21 years old: Any amount
American Highways Are Overrun by Drunk Drivers – Often Repeat Offenders
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reports that across the United States, 27 people die each day in a crash caused by a drunk driver. Hundreds of other people are injured, some critically, as drunk driving cases are often high speed.
Repeat offenders make up one-third of DWI arrests according to MADD.
Berenson Injury Law is an experienced personal injury law firm that has helped Dallas-Fort Worth accident victims for the past 36 years. As a MADD-approved attorney, I handle a lot of these cases and I have witnessed the grievous losses caused by intoxicated drivers.
We must do more to get drunk drivers off of our roads. Our lives depend on it.
Related post
Repeat Drunk Driver Gets Life Sentence For Death of Child in FW