It is 2017 and the holidays are behind us. The Christmas spirit leaving the air is not a fact that most people would celebrate. However, holidays are hazardous to a person’s health. The six holidays with the most motor vehicle fatalities in 2015, as reported by Texas DPS in order from greatest to least, were Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Christmas, and the New Year.
It is no coincidence that the six holidays with the most vehicle fatalities are also considered holidays where consuming alcohol is encouraged. Drunk driving killed 960 people in Texas in 2015. On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend nineteen people died in a motor vehicle crash. Eight of those nineteen vehicle fatalities had alcohol involved. It is staggering to consider that almost half of the deaths on Memorial Day Sunday involved alcohol. Of the total number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes in Texas 27% of them were due to a driver being under the influence of alcohol.
Driving under the influence does not just affect the drunk driver, it affects us all. Out of the 960 alcohol related fatalities, 154 of them were the passengers in vehicles driven by the drunk drivers. Out of the 960 fatalities from drunk driving, 167 of them were people not in the vehicle driven by the drunk driver. This totals to 321 people other than the drunk drivers who died as a result of drunk driving. In Texas 33.4% of the deaths due to drunk driving are not the drunk drivers.
If you or someone you know has been injured or killed by a drunk driver, contact an attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.