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.
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.
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.
Consider these heart-breaking stories from the past few days:
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.
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
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.
Berenson Injury Law has successfully resolved a case against the drunk driver and the bar that might have over-served him after a Fort Worth DWI collision in April.
A young woman was driving her car on a Fort Worth interstate late one night. Her boyfriend was a passenger. Suddenly a driver’s worst nightmare happened: a car driving the wrong way crashed into them. And guess what, the young male driver was driving while intoxicated. Without any headlights on.
I joined several hundred people on Saturday morning at the national headquarters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Las Colinas for its signature event, the Walk and Dash Like MADD.
We were there to pay tribute to those who had lost their lives in driving while intoxicated crashes, increase public awareness of this epidemic, and raise money. The comraderie was strong as families displayed photographs and personal displays, rebuilt motorcycles, and other memories of their loved ones.
Families held hands and walked and ran several miles together. A Dallas City Councilman eulogized a former city councilwoman and her daughter who were recently killed in a DWI crash.
Sunday morning in Fort Worth, a one vehicle collision caused six people to die at 2:00 a.m. – when the nearby bars were closing – on Northside Drive. A truck speeding out of control failed to negotiate a turn and crashed into a tree. Even a homeless man died. And this heartbreaking story was not even the only fatal DWI crash in DFW that day.
Later that evening, a 17-year-old passenger in a masssive car wreck went into labor and delivered a stillborn child. Her driver was speeding on Great Southwest Parkway when he blew through a red light and crashed into a pickup truck. That driver and his two passengers who were in their 70s were seriously injured. What makes this story even more maddening is that the car driver, who was only 17, was driving while intoxicated and didn’t even have a driver’s license.
What is going on out there?
Carolyn Davis died and her daughter is in critical condition after a Mazda SUV crashed head-on into their car. The horrific wreck in Oak Cliff is just the latest DWI crash in North Texas.
And here is an even worse part of this story, if that is possible. The drunk driver, a 36-year-old man, had already been arrested at least three times for DWI. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison after his most recent conviction. But the sentence was suspended because he agreed to drive a vehicle that had an ignition interlock device. Just last week, he completed his probation and the device was removed from his vehicle. This tragedy was a few days later.
UPDATED 7/18 – This tragedy worsened when Melissa Lashan Davis-Nunn died last night in the hospital. The drunk driver has been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter. The drunk told police that he had taken Xanax and claimed he was riding with two others, although no other passengers were found at the scene. and was joking with a nurse that he was there for a penile enhancemenet procedure.
As we are often wondering on this blog, what in the world is going on out there? And how can we keep the same catastrophes from happening again?
If you are injured in a crash caused by someone driving while intoxicated, file a lawsuit, and receive a punitive damages award from a jury, will you be paid? A surprising federal court ruling from the country’s most conservative federal appellate court of the 13 circuits decisively answered that question.
Background: Carlos Sanchez got drunk at a bar in San Antonio, ran a red light, and slammed into this car driven by Richard Frederking in 2004. Sanchez pled guilty to DWI.
Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog