http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm

http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org

There are even online drink trackers via app for both the iPhone and Google devices. One such app is called the DrinkTracker.

There are also breath analyzers that are available to families and individuals who want to monitor teenage drinking or their own sobriety. These handheld devices are relatively inexpensive and some are disposable. Generally, the more expensive the breathalyzer the more accurate the readings.

They even make devices that attach to your iPhone for testing your sobriety. You breathe into the device and it shows the results on your phone. Two reasonably priced devices are Breathometer and Alcohoot.

Many families choose to purchase a device to test their teenage drivers when they return home on the weekends. While all of these devices have variances, there are many more devices such as these that are available to test alcohol content.

The best approach however is to designate a driver if you have had any amount of alcohol to drink. Parents can lead by example and also never pass up an opportunity to discuss safe driving with your children.

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Other countries have followed this example and reduced the number of the fatal car accidents involving alcohol by approximately 10 to 15%. Reducing the legal limit 2.05 would put anyone who has more than one drink at risk for a DWI arrest.

When it would also do is tell drivers that you’d better not drink anything if you are going to drive home and not risk arrest. Designated drivers would be mandatory.

Whether or not the recommendations will be followed by states is another matter altogether. Truthfully, the biggest impact that the agency could make would be to call for increased funding for educational programs across the nation.

The agency also suggested that they would support laws and allowed a police officer to confiscate a drivers license at the scene of an arrest if the driver’s alcohol exceeds the legal limit or if they refused to take a blood-alcohol test.

Further, the agency recommended that passive alcohol detectors be provided to police officers in order to sense the presence of alcohol in a vehicle during a routine traffic stop.

There is little doubt that most states will not follow the recommendations of the agency. However, proposing the changes to be more in line with other countries will be a thought-provoking exercise and may lead to change.

Whether the legal threshold is reduced or not, citizens can support initiatives such as “friends don’t let friends drive drunk” and similar educational programs to win the hearts and minds of young people when they first start driving.

Mothers against drunk driving have made a huge impact in the battle against drunk driving accidents. The organization has been responsible for most of the significant changes in the law today. While the board indicated that there is no “silver bullet” with respect to drunk driving, positive steps can be made both from legislative perspective and for educational efforts at the local level.

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Recommendations will be received on ideas to reduce the level of fatal accidents which involve alcohol, currently estimated at about 30% of all fatal car accidents.

Drunk driving accidents account for over 10,000 lives a year and countless thousands of other people seriously injured. The state of Texas leads the nation in fatal drunk driving accidents. While action is required at all levels, national state and local, the solution is multi-pronged.

Without a doubt, education needs to be part of the solution and directed at younger drivers. New drivers are especially susceptible to drunk driving accidents because of their inexperience in both drinking and driving.

Lowering the legal limits has shown some promise in other countries but still is not a significant solution in and of itself. Likewise, increasing penalties has not been an effective solution in Texas.

There are many families and organizations that travel around the state of Texas to schools and other youth programs to educate about the consequences of drunk driving accidents. Some organizations bring wrecked vehicles from a drunk driving accident to show the students real clear consequences.

We will await the published thoughts of the Board regarding actions that may be effective in battling drunk driving in the United States.

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A fine for a DWI can be as high as $2000, And that doesn’t include the cost of bail or what a reputable and experienced DWI attorney will charge. Attorneys fees can be $5000 to 50,000 and up. If you have injured someone while behind the wheel drunk you can expect the attorneys fees to be gigantic. Additionally, court costs and expenses are added to the fine. Alcohol awareness classes or alcohol abuse classes may be ordered and are an additional expense.

After a DWI arrest and conviction, your vehicle insurance will go up significantly if you can even find an insurance company to write your policy. Expect an increase in insurance costs after a DWI to go on for at least five years.

You may lose your drivers license for up to a year after a DUI. And will be subject to an additional fee to have your license reinstated, not to mention a DWI surcharge that may be imposed upon a conviction.

Some people lose their jobs after a DWI arrest particularly if they were driving a company vehicle at the time. Others who may drive for living may find their chosen profession no longer available to them because of their drunk driving conviction.

Overall the economic consequences of choosing to drink and drive in the state of Texas can be very high indeed. Don’t drink and drive in the state of Texas.

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Drunken-driving arrests happen every single day in the greater Houston area. The number of arrests for DWI each week in Houston is astounding. Literally hundreds of arrests every month for drivers under the influence of alcohol. In some cases, it takes a major injury or even a fatality to take the driver off the road and get them the help that they need.

For three-time offenders, injuring someone will in all likelihood, send a person to prison for a lengthy time and some cases even the equivalent of life. This does little to help the injured victim, or the family that lost a loved one due to a DWI accident. Even taking a verdict against someone in jail is a symbolic gesture at best. For some, the justice is never attainable and they dedicate their lives to the fight against them can driving.

It is through the hard work of many volunteers and organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other organizations fight to change the laws and how the laws are enforced to protect communities from drunks. Some families have taken it upon themselves to pursue education of young people as a way of preventing needless loss of life and benefiting our communities. In Houston, one such organization is called Krysta’s Karing Angels.

The Rodriguez family has worked hard to educate young people throughout the Houston area of the dangers of drunken driving. They maintain a fleet of wrecked DWI vehicles that they take to schools and functions to show children the actual results of a DUI accident. Their motto is “save a life, don’t drive drunk”.

I urge everyone to support Krysta’s Karing Angels in any way they can and to do what they can to help keep the Houston metropolitan area safer from accidents involving drunk drivers.

It is through grassroots efforts like those of the Rodriguez family that the Houston area will become safer for our families. I applaud the Rodriguez family for their hard work and dedication to this wonderful cause. It is obvious that the terrible tragedy that struck their family has inspired them to work to protect other children from DWI accidents.

Talk to your teenage drivers every chance you get about the consequences and risks of drinking while driving. Make sure they understand that not only should they never drink and drive but they should be very careful on who they choose to ride with. A huge number of teenage drivers are lost each year because they chose to ride with someone who had been drinking. The pressure is a powerful force for young people and terms cannot emphasize enough the need to ensure your driver is safe.

The truth of the matter is that drunk driving accidents, are the second leading cause of death of teenage drivers. Education of our young drivers and eliminating repeat offenders from driving in our community is critical in the fight to prevent needless injury and death.

Please support the Rodriguez family and their efforts with Krysta’s Karing Angles.

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Certainly, someone in jail cannot drink and drive. Doesn’t our community is protected in the best way possible. Treatment for alcoholism is something that should accompany DUI or DWI penalties in almost every single instance. If someone has been arrested for a second offense, real help is probably necessary.

It seems a heavy burden to place upon our community and our judges to saddle them with the responsibility of keeping drunk drivers off the street. Families need to take ownership and responsibility for helping those who have a drinking problem find help. Interventions with family and friends should be a first line of defense against a drinking driver.

Recently in the news was yet another story of a drinking driver who was placed on probation and required to have specific monitoring devices for a time. Unfortunately, when the time ran out a third DWI charge was in the cards.

Stories like this are sad but common and highlight the fact that real treatment is necessary for those who have become alcoholics and cannot fight the battle alone.

Authorities have taken large steps to reduce the number of serious injury and fatal drunk driving accidents in the state of Texas. Montgomery County has taken the lead in many instances by imaginative measures aimed at preventing intoxicated drivers in their community. In one instance, authorities have arrested a bartender for over serving a customer. In many others the officers staked out known watering holes for those leaving while under the influence.

A three-pronged approach is necessary to battle drunk driving accidents in the state of Texas, education, enforcement and treatment.

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As people across the state of Texas are beginning to understand, we have a huge drunken-driving accident problem. The DUI problem in Texas is not limited to the major metropolitan areas like Houston, Dallas or San Antonio but spans the entire state of Texas. Perhaps it is the frontier mentality that makes Texas so great that leads to so many fatal DWI accidents.

There are a few things, which we should continue to fully support with our tax dollars, law enforcement is high on that list as is education for Texas children. Call your local representative and tell them you support fully funding the “no refusal” policies.

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With any personal injury car accident you should get as much information as you can about the other driver and the accident scene. While it is sometimes difficult to get information when you are in the back of an ambulance or in the hospital, often friends or family members can help to obtain that information for you.

As with all car accidents, you would need the name of the other driver, his or her insurance information and photographs of the vehicles if possible. Additionally, it is helpful to have the contact information of any fact witnesses and police officers or other responders who were at the scene. While it is easy to rely upon the police officers to obtain the fact witness names and numbers, in the twenty-five years that I’ve been handling personal injury lawsuits in Houston, we have found that more often than not officers do not always provide the names of all fact witnesses in their reports.

Photographs and video from a smart phone can be very valuable in showing the accident scene resting positions of the vehicles and the magnitude of the crash. The old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true when it comes to personal injury and DUI accidents. Likewise, if the other driver was arrested for drunken driving it is often helpful to obtain the videotape from the police department should the defendant later claim that they were not intoxicated at the time of the wreck.

DUI accidents tend to be more severe than a simple car wreck because speed is usually a factor given the impaired state of the driver. Many times we have wrong way accidents that result in a head on crash with a drunk driver. For this reason, injuries after a DWI accident statistically tend to be more severe. Frequently, with a serious injury, the amount of insurance that the drunk driver had available comes into play. In Texas, the current minimum insurance liability limits are $30,000 dollars for personal injury.

If the injuries are severe, or if a loved one has been lost, the minimum insurance liability limits are clearly not sufficient to compensate the victims for their loss. In that case, the family can look to their own insurance policy if they carry underinsured motorist coverage and also an investigation should take place regarding how the drunk driver became intoxicated. The potential for a Texas dram shop case should be evaluated if you have reason to believe that the drunk driver was drinking at a bar or a club prior to the accident.

The Texas Dram Shop Act covers the options for a plaintiff against an alcohol provider for over serving someone after they were obviously intoxicated. The Act also provides specific defenses for the owners of bars and clubs to a cause of action brought under the Texas Dam Shop Act.

For questions regarding a DUI accident, speak with a DUI accident attorney as soon as possible after the crash.

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The suspected drunk driver who was going east in the westbound Lane of Tidwell at the nineteen hundred block, fit a Toyota Corolla head-on and his passenger was fatally injured. The fatal accident happened Saturday night and is another Houston drunk driving fatality in a long line of statistics.

Fortunately, the other vehicle’s driver was uninjured in the accident, according to reports. The driver of the other vehicle was operating a Toyota Corolla and was hit head on. The driver who has been charged in the accident was injured and taken to Memorial Herman Hospital for treatment.

Houston leads the nation in fatal DWI accidents and despite the best efforts of law enforcement the statistics roll forward. The Houston area has approximately 50 DWI arrests a day.

Choose not to drink and drive.

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Mothers against drunk driving was organized about thirty-two years ago when a handful of mothers banded together in an effort to prevent further loss of lives due to drunk driving. The organization was initially founded by a mother who lost her daughter who was killed by a repeat drunk driving offender. That mother’s work has probably saved thousands of lives by educating the public and also advocating for measures to prevent repeat offenses.

Today the organization has evolved by combating drunk driving on a number of fronts. Currently, the organization provides support to law enforcement, advocates the use of ignition interlock devices, and also supports technological advances to determine whether or not someone has been operating a vehicle while drunk.

In the last few years across America drunk driving has been on the decline. Unfortunately, in Texas the problem is still rampant and in need of improvement.

One of the areas that the organization is working hard to help communities is that of the underage drinking problem. Educating teenagers and parents about the dangers and risks of drinking and driving or drug use and driving is a very important function for MADD. According to the organization, about one in eight eighth-graders has tried alcohol. Additionally, the organization reports that over six thousand teens die each year from alcohol use and accidents.

Finally, the organization provides much needed support for victims and their families. Losing a family member to a drunk driver or any unnecessary accident is a very traumatic and stressful event for families. MADD provides important support for the families.

MADD relies upon contributions to help communities and you can donate by going to the website at www.MADD.org.

Greg Baumgartner is a Houston accident lawyer and also the founder of the Baumgartner Law Firm which is located at 6711 FM 1960 West, Houston, Tx 77069, 281-587-1111. Follow us on Twitter.

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