A saddening example of the attitude many people take towards the chronic and deadly problem of drunken driving is revealed in a deadly DWI crash in northwest Houston early on Sunday morning. A disabled car was stalled by the side of North Sam Houston Parkway when Sergio Sanchez, Jr. reportedly slammed his white pickup truck into the rear of the car. The driver and the front seat passenger of the vehicle had been outside trying to fix it, while two women remained seated in the car.
One of the women died in the horrific crash. The other woman was taken to the hospital for her injuries. Our Houston parkway car accident attorneys express their deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Ms. Rocha, and we wish Ms. Reyes a safe and complete recovery from her injuries.
The stalled car had on its headlights, parking lights, and hazard lights. And at least one of the people from the disabled vehicle began waving and screaming at Sanchez to stop when they saw the white pickup truck bearing down on them. Sergio Sanchez, Jr. was charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault after the deadly Houston crash. (Jayme Fraser, Houston Chronicle, 4/13/14)
News accounts say that he issued an apology to the victims when he appeared at the courthouse. Friends of the victims and survivors of the accident opined that the apology sounded insincere. A news report indicated that Sanchez’s real concern after abruptly ending a life was to obtain probation or community service for his crime so that he could get on with his own life. (Mary Benton, KPRC News, 4/14/14)
A self-centered concern with his own future and apparent lack of concern for anyone else’s future was exemplified by his act of getting behind the wheel drunk and then disregarding the warnings of the multiple lights on the disabled vehicle as well as the waved and shouted warnings of occupants of the car to ram into the rear of it with deadly force.
Giving a drunken driver probation or community service would simply indicate a failure to take his crime seriously. If the sentence for taking a life indicates that we as a society don’t actually value others’ lives, how can we expect drunks to consider others’ lives or safety before they get behind the wheel? The Houston parkway car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that every drunken driving death is avoidable if we make the effort to ensure that drunks don’t get behind the wheel and that those who do don’t get released back into society to repeat their crimes.
Click the link to learn about another recent local crash with multiple injuries caused by a wrong way driver. 60% of wrong way wrecks are also DWI wrecks, so police tested the driver for intoxication after the crash.