Our Lake Jackson injury lawyers had written about Texas’ first statewide “no refusal” weekend centered on the July 4, 2011 holiday. That effort, designed to promote public safety on our roads by taking the drunk drivers off those roads, took in more than 1.400 DWI suspects across the state.
The success of that coordinated law enforcement safety effort has led to the expansion of “no refusal” policies across Texas since that time. San Antonio, for instance, observes the “no refusal” policy basically all the time. And Harris County, home of some of the nation’s highestDWI accident injury and fatality numbers, implements “no refusal” weekends almost every weekend.
Our Lake Jackson injury lawyers emphasize that the “no refusal” policy represents nothing new. Law enforcement personnel have historically had the right to request a warrant to obtain a forced blood sample on a DWI suspect that refused to voluntarily provide a sample.
But traditionally, the process of requesting and obtaining a warrant was slow, especially on holidays and weekends, when judges were generally on holiday themselves and unable to sign warrants. Once the warrant was obtained, and qualified medical personnel could extract a sample, the suspect might well be sober again. And severely annoyed.
The “no refusal” policy only streamlines the traditional process. On “no refusal” weekends, or in “no refusal” areas, coordinated efforts ensure that judges are available to review warrant requests and sign warrants, and that medical personnel and sample taking supplies are readily available to expedite procurement of a toxicology sample.
Texas’ implied consent rule also aids law enforcement in its efforts to curb drunken driving through implementation of no refusal policies. Our Lake Jackson injury lawyers explain that under the implied consent rule, Texas drivers, as a condition of obtaining their driver’s license, essentially consent voluntarily to blood alcohol sample taking and testing when police officers believe them impaired.
Wider implementation of no refusal polices and increased penalties for DWI offenses are intended to enhance public safety and take dangerous drunken drivers off the roads. Yet the problems of drunken driving shows little sign of abating, if drunken driving wreck reports in the news are any indicator.
No refusal provides peace officers with a greater ability to collect evidence against DWI suspects. Changes in penalties provide for harsher legal and financial consequences to convicted drunken drivers. Yet drunks continue to climb behind the wheel and drive seriously impaired until they crash. Those DWI crashes take a tremendous toll in injuries and fatalities among innocent victims.
Read about the alarming numbers of drunken driving injury and fatality accidents in Texas in our Lake Jackson injury lawyers’ DWI discussion here.