Holiday? Not From Deadly Car Accidents

Memorial Day is the most dangerous weekend of the year

Yesterday marked Memorial Day when we honored those who died on battlefields to give us our precious freedom. But there is little remembrance of those who lose their lives on roads every day due to drunk or reckless drivers.

These victims need to be remembered. And the drunk and reckless drivers need to be stopped.

Here were just a few of the weekend’s crashes in the DFW area:

• Saturday night: a one-year-old girl died when a SUV driven by a drunk 19-year-old crashed into her family’s Mustang in Garland. The drunk driver was being chased by police. He was driving erratically in and out of traffic at speeds up to 100 mph when ran a red light. Then he and his apparent girlfriend ran from the scene.  The child’s father, mother, and brother were seriously injured. Here is the accused drunk driver and his passenger.

• Sunday afternoon: two sisters, ages 18 and 17, died in an horrific collision when their mother lost control of their SUV and hit a bridge support south of Fort Worth. It is not known what caused the collision. And their grieving mother is in critical condition at a local hospital. The older daughter was just about to graduate from Alvarado High School.
• Early Monday: a 23-year-old man pictured who was DWI and who had a previous DWI ran a red light in West Dallas. He rammed his car into a car going through an intersection. That driver and two young women tragically died. Another woman suffered serious injuries and a teenage boy was also hurt.
• Early Tuesday: a man got into a fight outside of a Seventh Street bar in Fort Worth. He got in his truck and drove it into a crowd. The drunk hit a woman and fractured her jaw. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury.

That’s horrific, six lives taken away just like that and others seriously injured. We send our prayers and healing wishes to the victims and their families.

This holiday also serves as the unofficial start to summer and brings out a lot of drunk drivers. Each year, an average of about 400 Americans die on our country’s highways and roads over the three-day weekend and DWIs are the #1 reason.

Quarantine has not stopped bad drivers

Our roads have less traffic than in decades. You might assume that with less drivers, there would be less car wrecks. But there is never a holiday on drunk drivers, aggressive drivers, and red light runners.

And the quarantine seems to have emboldened some people to go even faster than ever.

According to the latest statistics, the fatality rate per mile driven increased by a whopping 14% from last year.

Law enforcement officials have reported that they have issued speeding tickets for drivers going 150 mph and many are not at all apologetic.

The latest way to get hurt driving in Dallas

Dallas police have already issued hundreds of citations for deadly street racing this year. There are organized events where people drive in from other states to participate.

This epidemic began several months ago and was captured here.

Last week in Fort Worth, just down University Drive from our offices, a racer was killed and his fellow racer was critically injured. Several other men have lost their lives, including a driver run off the road and another man thrown off of a racing truck in Dallas.

Street racing has led to a sharp rise in drug dealing, illegal gun possession, and stolen vehicles, not to mention mayhem and death. The Dallas City Council is considering increasing penalties for street racing. We hope they do.

He was doing what?!

Finally it was reported that the Utah Highway Patrol recently pulled over a swerving SUV on the interstate. The officer could not believe it when he walked up to the driver and found a 5-year-old behind the wheel. The kindergartner had already driven three miles from his home. He could barely reach the pedals, let alone see out of the windows, although he was a large boy. That is frightening, right?

How did this happen? The boy said that he had gotten into a fight with his mother when she would not buy him a Lamborghini. He grabbed the keys and took off for California to buy one. Chalk this up to the strange toll the pandemic is taking on our bored children.

Maybe he was headed to this dealership in LA. Or he could have drove to the one in Dallas. In his dreams.

We can help you

Berenson Injury Law specializes in car, truck, and 18-wheeler crashes. For the last 40 years, we have successfully represented many families seeking damages for their loved ones in wrongful death cases. We have also helped thousands of innocent drivers who were injured by reckless and intoxicated drivers.

We have written hundreds of articles on our blogs that can help you if you have been injured and need some guidance.

And we are available to discuss your case on the phone or remotely by video. We have not missed one day helping injured drivers and their families since this horrible pandemic began. If we can help you, please contact us here.