A deadly gas tanker accident on a freeway in Fort Worth, Texas, has been blamed on a wrong way driver who was traveling in the opposite direction on the freeway, under the influence of alcohol.  The man has now been charged with intoxication manslaughter.

The 23-year-old motorist was driving a pickup truck the wrong way in the westbound lanes of Interstate 30 in Fort Worth.  Soon, the pickup truck crashed into a gas tanker, and the tanker exploded in flames.  The tanker driver died at the scene of the accident.  The accident occurred on a bridge, and there was some damage to the structure of the bridge from the heat generated by the explosion.

Investigations into the accident have begun.  The driver has admitted to having had at least 10 beers before he began driving.   Investigators are focusing on where the man consumed that amount of alcohol before the accident.  The Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission has begun an investigation into the business where the man purchased his drinks.  They have identified one establishment where the man might have consumed his drinks, and are specifically investigating whether the business was negligent in over serving the man.

As Houston DWI lawyers and Houston Auto Accident Lawyers, we always encourage bars, taverns, pubs, restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol, to remember that they have a responsibility to do so safely.  For instance, staff at an establishment must not serve alcohol to a patron they can see is too intoxicated to drive.  Failure to do so can result in criminal charges being pressed against the establishment.  For instance, an establishment may face misdemeanor charges for serving alcohol to an intoxicated patron.  Also, an establishment may face a civil lawsuit for negligently serving a known intoxicated person additional drinks under the Texas Dram Shop Act.

According to the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, it plans to screen prospective jurors by going through their Facebook profiles and postings. It will use the information gained from these profiles and postings to decide whether the person is qualified to sit on a jury. This newfound trust in social media at the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office is not exactly surprising. The courtrooms in Cameron County were recently upgraded to make them WiFi-compatible. According to the DA’s office, the decision to use Facebook profiles to screen jurors has been made to give prosecutors every tool at their disposal to find a favorable jury.

Currently, prosecutors use smart phones to do a Google search on a prospective juror. The only other information that prosecutors have to work with is the name of the juror, the number of children he has, religion and the employer. Obviously, that is limited information, considering that Facebook offers a wealth of more private and personal information, including musings, thoughts, and pet peeves and so on, that could offer great insight into a jurors mindset.

However, there’s a tiny problem. Facebook profiles can now be made private, giving only some users access to the person’s private and personal information. As Houston criminal defense attorneys, we don’t understand how this tool can be used to its maximum potential if access is as limited as it currently is.

The best idea is to make sure that your Facebook profile is set to private so that only the people that you want to see your personal information can see it.  If your profile is not set to “private,” your personal and private information can be seen and used by all sorts of people including the District Attorney’s office, insurance companies, etc.

Much of the increase in DWI arrests in Texas happened because of a $2 million grant by the Department of Transportation. The grant was used to target high-risk locations for DWI. About 442 out of the total number of arrests this year were made in areas that have a high number of drunk driving accidents.

Not only that, drivers in Texas can expect to be pulled over for intoxicated driving more and more frequently over the next year. The Department of Public Safety plans to use its $2 million grant to increase its DWI enforcement efforts through 2011. There are plans to have more troopers stationed during prominent holidays, including the Fourth Of July, Labor Day and over spring break.

Texas’ strong DWI laws can result in offenders being penalized with heavy fines, community service, probation and a license suspension. As Houston DWI attorneys, we have severely criticized these laws and their lack of effectiveness. For instance, in spite of having some of the harshest anti-DWI laws in the country, Texas continues to have some of the highest drunk driving accident rates in the US. In particular, Harris County and the Houston area have substantial number of fatalities every year in drunk driving accidents. That’s proof that the state’s DWI laws are simply aimed at racking up meaningless arrest numbers, regardless of the impact to innocent drivers.

For instance, if you have eaten soon after drinking, it is likely to impact your reading. Combining alcohol with food seems to result in a lower reading. Besides, the number of alcoholic beverages you have consumed and your weight also determine whether you reach or cross that crucial .08 limit.

We often find that women are affected differently by alcohol, than men. A woman could have the same number of drinks as a man, and still find herself with a higher blood alcohol content (BAC). There are physiological reasons for this. For instance, men have a 61% concentration of water in the body, compared to women who have a water content of around 52%. Therefore, the alcohol in a man’s body is diluted more, and may not show up as much in a test.

Similarly, women generally have a higher body fat concentration than men.  This is important because alcohol is not absorbed in body fat which keeps a high concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream.

A woman’s hormone levels also determine the manner in which the alcohol is absorbed in the body. For instance, hormonal changes around a woman’s menstrual period can cause you to become drunk faster. For example, if you’re on estrogen pills (i.e. birth control pills), you may be intoxicated faster than you know, because these pills impact the ability of the body to eliminate the alcohol. Besides, women have a higher body fat concentration, and because fat is not able to absorb alcohol, women have much higher levels of concentrated alcohol in their system.

Not being aware of these facts, could lead to a situation where a woman is drinking with her male friends and expect to be able to handle the drinks as well as they do.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of factors to consider about how our bodies process and eliminate alcohol.  Reaching the legal limit for alcohol is difficult to determine and you likely won’t know when you have reached a 0.08 BAC. You may be more intoxicated 30 minutes after you stop drinking depending on the amount of alcohol you consumed.  The best policy is not to drive if you have been drinking.  Have a designated driver or take  cab.

The so-called “DWI Lite” law is currently being considered by the Texas Legislature. The law would create a new misdemeanor charge for persons driving with a blood alcohol limit of between .05 and .08. The current maximum legally allowed limit of alcohol in Texas is .08. The law, called Driving While Ability Impaired law, will allow defendants convicted of driving with a blood alcohol limit of between .05 and .08, to plead out of DWI, but still retain a DWI conviction on their records.

Currently, some drivers who have been convicted for DWI in Texas may plead those charges down to a non-DWI related offense, like reckless driving. These people will not have a DWI conviction on their records. However in the case of a conviction under the Driving While Ability Impaired law that is now being considered, offenders will be allowed to plead out of a DWI, but will still have a DWI conviction on their record.

The next time these people commit a DWI offense, prosecutors can enforce tougher penalties. What legislators want to do is to make sure that everyone who has a DWI conviction under the Driving While Ability Impaired law, continues to retain their DWI conviction on their record.

As Houston DWI attorneys, we will be watching these proceedings with interest. There is no doubt that there is huge pressure on legislators to do something – anything – to reduce those drunk driving accident fatality numbers. However, passing legislation that could potentially trap countless numbers of drivers, who may have had a beer or two but can drive safely, is not the answer.

Almost everybody now agrees that the 2001 law, that imposed a license suspension on persons driving under the influence, has been a failure. Motorists who have their licenses suspended can always apply for an occupational license, and can get these quite easily. There are no statistics on whether the 2001 law has been any good at all, but we suspect, the effectiveness has been minimal. Besides, seizing a person’s license as soon as he is arrested actually causes the state to spend millions of dollars on appeals hearings and administrative procedures. This is money that could actually be spent to better use elsewhere.

The rationale behind the 2003 law was using funds generated from a surcharge for DWI to meet a $10 billion revenue shortfall. The aim was to use some of these funds to fund highway programs. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked like that at all. More than 1.2 million Texans have been charged under the new DWI laws, and the result is that most of these people now owe the state money to the tune of approximately $1.1 billion in surcharges. Not only have they not been able to make these exorbitant payments, but they have also had their licenses suspended. Many of them have no choice but to continue to drive without a license. This is a law that has actually made a bad problem even worse.

According to the New York Times, sobriety education in classrooms-something we champion-is not such a great way to drive home the “don’t drink and drive” message. Results from sobriety education programs have not been as effective.  We don’t believe that there is sufficient reason for educational institutions to stop offering these programs to their students. Even if these programs can save one life or prevent one teenager from going on to become a binge drinker or repeat drunk driving offender for life, it’ll be worth it.

However, education seems to be more effective when the parents are involved. This is something we definitely agree with. We would encourage all parents in Houston to have free and honest discussions with their children about alcohol-related excesses.

A DWI offense on your record can seriously the impact the college you attend, or the kind of job you get, and will follow you around for the rest of your life. Besides, you are a serious danger to other motorists, if you drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Other measures like advertising campaigns and other forms of social marketing, as well as warning labels on alcohol, have not been found to be that effective. That is not so surprising to us. These measures may be effective in the short term, but it’s hard for the message to stay ingrained in your mind for months or years after.

Ultimately, we would encourage schools to keep the focus on not drinking and driving, and parents to continue talking openly with their kids about drunk driving, in order to avoid Houston DWI license suspensions, and drunk driving accidents.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an alcohol-related accident or arrested for DWI or other alcohol-related offense, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at The Kahn Law Firm today for a free consultation at 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877–226-9940.

Some of the discussion also centered on a DWI program in Texas that levies thousands of dollars of surcharges on drunk drivers.  This program has been a major failure as any Houston DWI defense lawyer will tell you.  Since the program was initiated in 2003, DWI offenders in Texas have racked up more than $54 million in unpaid surcharges.  The program also contains a provision that would ban driver’s licenses for motorists who fell behind in the surcharge payments.  That has only led to more numbers of motorists driving without a valid license.

One approach that any Houston DWI lawyer would support was put forth by Austin police Chief Art Acevado.  His approach involves intervention in the form of treatment programs for first-time drunk driving offenders.  Right now, what we’re doing is simply dumping people with addiction in prison, somehow hoping that once they come out, things will be different.  It’s still the same person, and they still have the same disease.  Alcohol addiction is a disease, and it’s sad that law enforcement agencies and lawmakers don’t seem to realize this.  Treatment will not only help free up prison space in our overcrowded prisons, but will also help the person overcome his addiction.  It decreases the chances that the person will be involved in another drunk driving offense.

Currently, Texas DWI laws seem to involve a tough cowboy approach that often ends up doing more harm than good.  It costs money to keep people in jail for a few months, and even then, there are no guarantees that he will never drive intoxicated again.  Treating him, so he is never involved in a DWI offense again, is a far more reasonable approach.

If you have been charged with a DWI or other alcohol-related crime, contact the experienced DWI lawyers at the Kahn Law Firm today for a free, confidential consultation by calling 713-226-9900 or toll free 1-877-226-9940.

• If they received plenty of love and affection from their parents
• If their parents kept track of their movements outside the home

Not so surprisingly, children whose parents showered them with love and affection and at the same time, were strict about their movements outside the home, had lower incidences of binge drinking, and had more responsible drinking practices.  Children, whose parents were very loving, but not too strict about activities outside the home, had their risk of binge drinking increase by at least three times.  Children whose parents were strict, but did not show too much affection, had a risk of binge drinking that was twice as high as children whose parents were both loving and strict.

It’s obvious from the study that a combination of love and support, and setting rules and enforcing these, can help prevent alcohol-related excesses among teenage motorists.  That shouldn’t exactly be a surprise to a Houston DWI lawyer or a Houston car accident lawyer, but it’s good to see that what we’ve known all along has been proved scientifically.

It’s also a reminder that although you may not be able to control all the insane things your teenagers are capable of doing, there is much that you can do to prevent them from driving under the influence, binge drinking, and other kinds of dangerous behavior.  Let your teenager know he’s loved and wanted at home, and keep track of what he’s doing outside the home-that seems to be all it takes.

If you or a loved one has been affected by a DWI, contact the Husband & Wife legal team at the Kahn Law Firm by calling 713-226-9900 today for a free, confidential consultation.

Nelson was arrested on suspicion of DWI on the Fourth of July. Officers took him to the Pasadena jail where he refused to be subjected to a breathalyzer test. After that, officers informed him that they had a warrant to draw his blood. Nelson objected saying that he had a deathly fear of needles.

An undercover media reporter was able to obtain an exposé, including a video of the man being brutally beaten after he objected to the draw. The video shows Nelson begging the police officers not to force him to a blood draw because of his fear of needles. He keeps insisting that he has witnesses to prove he was not drunk. What happens next is astounding. One of the police officers punches Nelson several times. According to Nelson, he was punched several times in the face and was kneed in the neck. The punching and beating only stopped when Nelson stopped yelling. Nelson has now filed a lawsuit against the police officers involved.

Last we checked, we still lived in the United States.  If Nelson did not want to be subjected to a blood draw in spite of it being a no-refusal weekend, there were other ways that officers could have dealt with the situation. He could have been hauled into court for contempt, for instance. It seems shocking that this man was beaten up the way he was when he didn’t seem in the least bit threatening or intimidating.

If you have been arrested for DWI, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at The Kahn Law Firm today for a free legal consultation at 713-226-9900.