Andrea Flores EDINBURG– A new law requiring intoxication manslaughter convicts to pay the child support for a victim’s child will run into effect on Sept. 1. Mothers Against Drunk Driving responded to the change.
“Over the course of the year, a person was killed every 7 hours and 17 minutes in Texas because of a DUI-alcohol-related traffic crash, resulting in 1,203 people losing their lives,” according to TxDOT.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a non-profit organization with a local office in Edinburg. MADD provides victim assistance to those affected by DWI and drunk driver’s actions.
Victim survivor advocate Analicia Zarate said she works along MADD to bring awareness to the community by sharing her experience.
“It was November 12, 2000,” Zarate said. “It was a Sunday night. And my mother and I were headed home from church. We only had a stop sign. And he disregarded that and crashed into the front driver quarter of our vehicle. And my mother died instantly on the scene.”
She talked about how House Bill 393, also called Bentley’s law, would have helped Zarate’s father with their financial burden.
“I was four at the time. And then my dad raised me on his own,” she said. “There was a financial burden on him because he had lost his livelihood, and then now had to be more expending, more monies, to raise me.”
Program Specialist for MADD and South Texas Affiliate Maura E. Torres talked about how people are influenced by the myth that nothing is going to happen if driving while intoxicated.
“If you get arrested, then that becomes a record, a criminal record, in your background. When employers are looking at let’s say, you graduate, there goes your career,” Torres said.
Lt. Gabriel Vela-Reyna from the Edinburg Police Department gave advice to those who witness a person who is intoxicated getting behind the wheel.
“Get the vehicle description, license plate. We do not really want you guys to engage them as far as you know trying to do something yourself,” Vela said. “You can also call us at 956-289-7700, and you will be connected to one of our dispatchers; with that, we will in turn dispatch an officer to that area.”
Edinburg is a no-refusal city, meaning that if drivers do not agree to a breath test the police proceed to obtain a blood warrant to get the driver’s intoxication level.
