Drunk Teacher Drives Her Kids into Frisco Pond Halloween Night

Horror Story In North Dallas

Two kids had a Halloween scare of a lifetime when their mom drove their car into a pond. Fortunately, the young children and their mother were able to climb out of the vehicle’s windows as it sank and swim to safety. 

Nobody was hurt in the crash. The mother, Gonzales Rodiles, 34, was charged with two felony counts of driving while intoxicated with a child passenger. 

The crash occurred at around 10 p.m. Ms. Rodiles — a teacher in a Plano elementary school — veered off the road and into the pond at the north end of Duck’s Landing in Frisco. 

On Friday, I blogged about the dangers of Halloween and drunk driving, but I didn’t think we’d reached this unbelievable point where this can happen and no one even acts surprised. We’ve got to stop DWIs.

Frightening DWI Accidents Happen Every Day

This incident is only the tip of the iceberg. Texas leads the nation in drunk driving and in alcohol-related traffic fatalities. 13,138 died in Texas in drunk driving accidents in the decade between 2003 and 2012. In 2012, the rate of drunk driving deaths per 100,000 Texas residents was 4.9 percent, compared to 3.3 percent nationally. Many thousands of people were injured. 

This is no surprise considering that, according to a 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, 2.1 percent of Texans reported climbing behind the wheel after having too much to drink during the previous 30-day period — and these are only the ones who admitted it! 

Strategies for Minimizing Drunk Driving

If a disease were to infect hundreds of thousands of people and to result in high numbers of deaths, we would expect authorities to implement policies to stop the spread of the disease to protect the public. 

What can stop this epidemic of drunk driving? According to the CDC, these strategies work:

• Sobriety checkpoints, which unfortunately are illegal in the state of Texas
• Installation of ignition interlock devices for anyone convicted of DWI, not just repeat offenders
• Mass media campaigns to alert the public about the dangers of drunk driving
• Driver’s license revocation and suspension 
• Alcohol screening and intervention to treat people who have dependency issues
• Education programs that teach teens about the dangers of underage drinking and riding with a person who is drunk

If you were injured by a drunk driver, reach out to a qualified personal injury lawyer who can help you obtain results.