DWI Category Archives — Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog Published by Fort Worth, Texas Injury Attorney

June 26, 2020

Deadly Crashes in North Texas Continue

Ambulance-injured-client With people staying home and driving less, you would hope that an unexpected benefit of the terrible pandemic is that car accidents decreased. They have — but not as much as you would have expected.

That’s because drunk and reckless drivers never take a break. They even seem to be out in even greater numbers, possibly now that the roads are emptier and they can drive faster.

Vehicle crashes are 100% preventable. If drivers followed basic traffic laws, they wouldn’t happen and people wouldn’t be rushed to ERs.

June 8, 2020

Burleson Drunk Driving Crash Takes Life of Woman

by William K. Berenson

Late Saturday night a man struck an Alvarado woman with his vehicle in the 3300 block of Interstate 35 in Burleson. She tragically suffered fatal injuries. The driver failed field sobriety tests and was charged with intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle, according to news sources. We offer our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased victim and hope that the driver gets the maximum punishment allowed by Texas law.

I35-Burleson-site-of-fatal-crash

Fatal Driving While Intoxicated Crashes in North Texas are a serious problem

A shocking 10,000 Texans lost their lives in DWI collisions in Texas from 2010 to 2017. This number increases each year. About 100 of the victims each year live in the DFW area.

May 26, 2020

Holiday? Not From Deadly Car Accidents

by William K. Berenson

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.

May 1, 2020

Keep Safe While Driving As Stay-At-Home Order Is Lifted In Texas

by William K. Berenson

You need to be extra careful on the roads starting today

We are all glad that Governor Abbott has relaxed the quarantine and that many people are returning to jobs, stores, and restaurants. But we Texans have not driven much for the past few months, are antsy, and maybe even a little rusty. There were many more vehicles on the road this morning as Mr. Berenson drove to the office and saw many vehicles driving way too fast — almost like they wanted to be on the track of the Texas Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, we can unfortunately expect an increase in car and truck wrecks in the coming weeks. Statistics from Austin were just revealed that show that serious injuries from vehicle crashes actually increased during the last two months when driving was curtailed. So we wanted to give you ways to keep safe while driving to prevent you from being the victim of a Fort Worth car accident.

March 11, 2020

Deadly Texas Drunk Driving Accident Caused By Restaurant

by William K. Berenson

Drinking and Driving Several weeks ago, three teenagers tragically died when their speeding car crashed in Plano at 4:00 a.m. We all suspected that this was just another Texas drunk driving accident. After all, we are always #1 in the country for the number of DWI fatalities, with 820 Texans losing their lives in 2018. It was shocking that an investigation found that an employee of a nearby barbecue restaurant was responsible for selling alcohol to the minors.

While the employee faces criminal charges of up to one year in jail, you may be wondering

(1) how the civil aspect of a DWI crash case works; and

January 3, 2020

Affluenza Teen and the Epidemic of DWI Deaths in DFW

by William K. Berenson

Crashed-truck

New Year, same old results on our roads

New Year’s Eve, the holiday devoted to getting drunk, took its usual deadly toll in North Texas. Here are reports about the holiday’s DWI deaths in DFW and a related story about the poster child of drunk driving in North Texas – if not the country. These add to our dismal December drunk driving crashes.

Ethan Couch, who caused four DWI deaths in DFW and permanent paralysis to another teenager, is jailed

December 27, 2019

Representing Family in Fatal DWI Crash

by William K. Berenson

Our firm is filing suit on behalf of the family of a man who tragically lost his life when he was crashed into by a repeat-drunk driver.

The decedent was going to work when a pickup truck rear ended his vehicle at an extremely fast speed.

The drunk driver fled the scene but police helicopters located him and he was arrested for intoxication manslaughter. He has a long criminal history and we believe should be given a lengthy jail sentence.

December 18, 2019

Driving While Intoxicated Collisions Spike Over Holidays

by William K. Berenson

Man-drinking-while-driving

We are all busy enjoying the holidays — some people too much. The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is one of the most dangerous times to be on the road in Texas. With all the Christmas parties and football games, driving while intoxicated collisions increase. Too many people decide to get too drunk, drive too recklessly, and cause too many car crashes.

Latest driving while intoxicated collisions

Consider these heart-breaking stories from the past few days:

Today — a man who was driving his BMW the wrong way on Loop 820 West in Fort Worth was sentenced to 20 years in jail for intoxication manslaughter. This is the maximum sentence under the Texas Penal Code, Section 49.08. The drunk crashed head-on into the car of Moses Elizondo, a kind 21-year-old who was working late to make money to go back to college.
Yesterday morning at 10:30 a.m. — a drunk driver in Dallas veered off Avondale Avenue near Turtle Creek Boulevard in Dallas. He killed a 72 year-old-woman who was getting a little exercise walking on a raised sidewalk. The driver of the black Audi was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. He had a prior DWI conviction in nearby Uptown a few years ago and made no attempt to help the woman he struck. This crash should be the poster child for why we must do more to crack down on DWIs.
Yesterday about 2:30 a.m. — someone drove the wrong way on the Dallas North Tollway near Forest Lane and hit another vehicle. Fortunately only the wrong-way driver was injured. Often these are high-speed crashes that seriously injure or take the lives of one or multiple people.
Last week –a wrong-way driver crashed into other vehicles at 3:30 a.m. on Interstate 30 near Riverside Drive in Fort Worth. That driver died and another motorist was injured.

December 6, 2019

Drunk Fort Worth Driver Takes Life of High School Senior

by William K. Berenson

Drunk Driving This is the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the most deadly for vehicle crashes caused by intoxicated drivers. The holiday season began on a heart-breaking note on Thanksgiving morning when a drunk Fort Worth driver crashed her car into a 17-year-old. Benjamin Floran Castaneda, a senior at North Side High School, tragically lost his life. The drunk Fort Worth driver was traveling the wrong way on Loop 820 and crashed into three vehicles. Other drivers were also injured.

It it hard to believe that the woman was driving while intoxicated just so she could go to the Cowboys game to tailgate and drink more — at 5:00 a.m. She was arrested for intoxication manslaughter. We hope she is given a lengthy jail sentence to serve as a deterrent to other people like her.

Benjamin was a fine young man who wanted to go to college so he could devote his life to teaching mariachi music, his passion. He was in the unique mariachi band at North Side High School.

November 25, 2019

Unusual Fort Worth DWI Crash Resolved

by William K. Berenson

DWI-hit-house

Maximum insurance policies over $100,000 paid to man asleep in his house

Berenson Injury Law has resolved a crazy Fort Worth DWI crash case where our client got hit by this truck and flying bricks while he was lying in his bed. A drunk driver

hit a sign,
swerved to his left,
jumped the median,
swerved over two more lanes of traffic,
drove across a yard, and
crashed into our client’s bedroom.

The next day, our client went to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured rib and other injuries. He could not work for several weeks. Fortunately, he has fully recovered.

We were able to obtain the DWI motorist’s liability policy amount of $100,000 and our client’s Personal Injury Protection benefits of $2,500. The net amount recovered so far by our client (after repayment of his medical bills – which we were able to reduce by over $20,000) is $51,000. EDITED: Now up to $53,000 with a further reduction of bills.

This number will be higher when we collect additional money from his underinsured motorist policy. The man also obtained additional money from his homeowner’s policy.

Our client was very happy and very nicely wrote this five-star review on Google:

Excellent staff, they worked very hard on our case. We are so lucky to have them on our side. Mr. Berenson is the best attorney you can hire. I am very happy with results of my case. I will do recommend this attorney to anyone who needs an attorney who will fight for you. Thank you very much.