No jail for 'affluenza' teen in fatal crash draws outrage

In a case with growing political ripples, a Texas judge's reaffirmation placing a teen involved in a drunken-driving fatal accident on probation is drawing fresh outrage from the victims' families.

Ethan Couch, 17, will be on 10 years probation after Texas District Judge Jean Boyd again decided against jail time. He'll also be in a drug and rehab center for an unspecified time. Couch's attorneys used an "affluenza" defense at his trial last year, saying the then 16-year-old had grown up with a sense of entitlement and developed poor judgment after being coddled by his wealthy parents.

Prosecutors said Couch's blood-alcohol level was three times the Texas legal limit when his pickup slammed into a group of people who were helping a woman with a stalled car last June. The driver, Breanna Mitchell, and bystanders Brian Jennings, Hollie Boyes and daughter Shelby, were killed. Nine others were injured.

According to police, Couch was going 70 mph in a 40 mph zone when he lost control of his father's pickup and his blood alcohol content was 0.24. The state's legal limit for adults is 0.08. Couch had been cited earlier in 2013 for being a minor in possession of alcohol and consuming alcohol as a minor, pleading no contest to both charges in a March hearing.

Couch, who pleaded earlier to four counts of intoxication manslaughter, was back in court this week after prosecutors again sought a 20-year jail term related to the crash. But in a hearing closed to the media, Boyd reaffirmed her earlier sentence.

Psychologist G. Dick Miller testified at Couch's trial that the you was given "freedoms no young person should have" and that he felt no rational link between behavior and consequences. Miller has since regretting using the term affluenza.

"This kid had medical problems, he had social anxiety disorder, he had all sorts of things. He had depression. He found alcohol was his medicine," Miller said in a December interview. "I think that term, 'affluenza,' which I was just using to describe what we used to call spoiled brats, it's not a diagnosis."

Two Texas gubernatorial candidates have spoken out on the case, while court observers and psychologists say the affluenza defense could be used in future cases involving juveniles, sending a dangerous message that could reinforce reckless behavior and poor judgment.

Victims' family members remain outraged.

"No matter where he goes ... no matter what game he and his family think they've beaten ... the world is not ever going to take their eyes off of him," said Marla Mitchell, Breanna's mother. "Let's let them know that no amount of money or prestige is ever going to grant them immunity for what they chose for their life that caused this for our lives."

Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter in the accident, said news media should have been allowed in the juvenile court hearing.

"If anything, the ability to tamp this down, keep this quiet, let this go away is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Absolutely this story has to go on,'' he said.

The case could be a hot-button political issue. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis has called Boyd's decision a disgrace. And Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican contender, said he's trying to determine if Couch's sentence can be appealed.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who serves as president of the Senate, has already asked for a sentencing guideline study of intoxication manslaughter cases.

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Source: US Today (Strauss, 2/06)

Music video gives look at boy paralyzed in drunk driving crash

KELLER, Texas -- "Blink your eyes if you remember me," said 17-year-old Michael Lane, and his childhood friend Sergio Molina blinked.

It's the only way Sergio communicates. Michael treasures every blink.

"It's heartbreaking. Sergio was such a happy kid, always laughing," Michael said. "Had this electric, outgoing personality."

The two met in middle school. Michael is now a junior at Keller Central High. He's a budding hip hop singer and songwriter. And now he's writing about tragedy.

"Four people are dead and I can't even see remorse. I ain't let out that much tears since my parents got divorced. And they want rehab?" he sings.

Those lyrics are a nod to the 10 years of probation given to 16-year-old Ethan Couch, who was drunk when he was driving a pickup full of teenagers. He plowed into an accident scene, killing the driver of a broken down car and three Good Samaritans who had come to her aid.

Sergio Molina was in the back of the truck. He was paralyzed in the crash.

His family gave Michael permission to use their private moments together in a music video, and also gave us permission to share it.

"The first thing that was on my mind when I started writing it was Sergio," Michael said of the song "Stay," which features Sergio in the video.

The crash was in June, Michael wrote the song in one day, after spending many weeks by his friend's side.

"I was so stressed out, had so many mixed emotions, and had so much going on, that the only way I knew how to keep myself from imploding was to write it," he said. "This has made a huge impact on my life. Up until this point, I've never really had to deal with losing someone -- let alone a friend."

His emotions drove him to wrote another song this week, after the proceedings in juvenile court.

"I had gone and testified on behalf of Sergio and hearing everyone's testimony and all the police statements, I was real -- I was shocked," he said.

"I broke down and cried like a baby," he admitted.

Michael doesn't yet have a video for his newest piece, but the lyrics are powerful alone. They are all about Couch.

"Four people are dead and I can't even seen remorse. I ain't let out that much tears since my parents got divorced and they want rehab?" he sings.

"Can't you see the stuff you've done? Even if they let you walk, this will haunt you. You ain't won."

Michael said he was moved to write about Couch because of his personal experience inside the courtroom.

"We made eye contact one time and that was when I was coming off the stand, and it was almost for like a second or two," Michael explained. "You know you can tell a lot about someone when you look in their eyes."

"Instead of this remorseful, guilty look you'd expect someone to have, his stare was just kind of cold," he said. "Like he was either angry, or he just wasn't there."

Michael's newest song includes one line near the end where he names each victim who died. He didn't know them, but feels like he does, especially after hearing graphic testimony about their violent deaths.

"I know Shelby, I know Holly, and I feel for Breanna. And Brian, in my heart, I want y'all to know you died in honor."

"I mention their names because the love they gave and the memory people have of them will always live on," Michael said.

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Source: KVUE (Woodart, 12/16)

High School Senior Dies in Texting-Related Crash

A 17-year-old North Texas high school senior was killed Thursday when she crashed her car while texting, police said.

The accident happened at about 3 p.m. on West Exchange Parkway near Trinidad Lane in Allen.

Emily Stambaugh died when her car veered off the road, hit the curb and then struck a rock wall, Sgt. Jon Felty said. No other cars were involved in the crash.

"I just want everyone to know what a great person she was," said Stambaugh's boyfriend Brandon Moring. "She was an outgoing, bubbly person. She always knew how to make you laugh, smile, just everything."

Felty said the early results of the investigation show she was distracted by using her cellphone.

"It certainly appears she was texting with (her) boyfriend and sister at the time the accident occurred," he said.

The lesson is simple, Felty said.

"Don't text and drive," he said.

Moring said he preferred to talk about her and not the circumstances of the crash.

The accident couldn't have come at a worse time for the Stambaugh family.

Stambaugh recently tweeted that her father was in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant.

Allen High School's football team played Plano High School on Friday night, and friends wore white to honor her.

"I think the biggest lesson all teenagers can take from this is to show us how fragile life really is," said Allen senior Tracey Brannon, 17. "It was one of my friends who died, so it's really hard right now."

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Source: NBCDFW (Gordon, 11/08)

Toyota Plaintiffs Target Vehicle Electronics

The sudden-acceleration litigation against Toyota shifts to Oklahoma on Monday, as plaintiffs attorneys for the first time blame vehicle electronics for a crash that injured the driver and killed a front-seat passenger.

The first major trial over sudden acceleration focused on Toyota's failure to install a brake override safety system, not the electronics. A Los Angeles jury began deliberations on October 2 following two months of testimony.

The plaintiff in the Oklahoma case is Jean Bookout, who suffered internal bleeding and a broken ankle when her 2005 Camry crashed six years ago. Her friend, Barbara Schwarz, who was in the front seat, was killed.

Toyota has so far managed to settle litigation over sudden-acceleration defects. A $1.6 billion settlement, approved in July, resolved claims by consumers that their vehicles lost value. Another $25.5 million settlement resolved claims that shareholders lost money from the recalls. But trials now under way could influence the outcome of hundreds of remaining lawsuits, all of which target Toyota for injuries and deaths associated with accidents. Bookout filed her lawsuit in 2008, one year before Toyota began recalling nearly 10 million vehicles for defective floor mats and accelerator pedals linked to sudden acceleration. The case is a an outlier: It's not part of a coordinated proceeding, and lawyers have not selected it as a bellwether trial, defined as one whose outcome could guide the resolution of other cases pending against Toyota across the nation.

"Ms. Bookout doesn't have much memory…but she remembers the onset of the incident and remembers pumping her brakes, and the car kept going when she was slowing to get off the exit ramp," said Bookout's lawyer, Graham Esdale, a shareholder at Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles in Montgomery, Ala.

But Toyota has brought in a significant legal team including Bowman and Brooke, its lead national counsel in the sudden-acceleration cases. The team also includes J. Randolph Bibb Jr. of Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop in Nashville, Tenn., and James Jennings and Derrick Teague, senior shareholders of Jennings Cook & Teague in Oklahoma City.

Toyota spokeswoman Carly Schaffner issued a formal statement: "Multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of Toyota's electronic throttle control systems, which are equipped with numerous, robust failsafe systems."

Toyota faces a formidable foe. In addition to Esdale, Beasley Allen's trial team includes senior member Jere Beasley and products liability shareholders Ben­jamin Baker and J. Cole Portis. The firm also is working with Larry Tawwater and Darren Tawwater of The Tawwater Law Firm in Oklahoma City.

The trial is expected to last less than three weeks. "It'll be fairly extensive," Esdale said. "Right now, our trial team is bigger than anyone we've sent to a court."

Bookout and Schwarz's estate intend to claim that Toyota was negligent and that the design of its 2005 Camry was defective, Esdale said. They also plan to ask jurors for punitive damages.

Some 20 experts are on tap, many of whom appeared during the first bellwether case over sudden acceleration to testify about braking systems. Others plan to testify about alleged defects in the vehicle's electronics software. Toyota has moved to exclude a report by one such plaintiffs expert, Michael Barr, whom plaintiffs lawyers indicated has identified a potential software glitch that could cause sudden acceleration. "Mr. Barr testified in his deposition that the Toyota software is defective, which results in unintended acceleration," Larry Tawwater wrote.

FIGHT OVER EXPERT

Toyota's motion and Barr's report were filed under seal, but Toyota has made a similar request to exclude Barr's findings in a case scheduled to go to trial on November 5 in the multidistrict litigation over sudden-acceleration defects against Toyota pending before U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, Calif.

Beasley Allen has asked that additional members of its team have access to Toyota's proprietary software, which is housed in a secured facility in Maryland. Only two lawyers at the firm — Esdale and Baker — now have access to the source-code database.

"We filed a motion to allow lawyers trying the case access to it," Esdale said. "Clearly, they'll see and hear about it during the trial." Toyota's attorneys have opposed that request; access to its source code is governed by a stipulated protective order in the multidistrict litigation.

Oklahoma County District Court Judge Patricia Parrish issued a letter order on September 24 denying Toyota's motion as to Barr, but hasn't ruled on the source-code request. On October 1, she denied the plaintiffs' request to put James Lentz, head of Toyota's North American region and Toyota's highest ranking U.S. executive, on the stand. Lentz was forced to testify in person before jurors during the first trial.

Parrish also rejected a motion by Toyota to prevent plaintiffs lawyers from disclosing to the news media all "extrajudicial statements," especially highly sensitive proprietary information, that could prejudice a prospective jury pool.

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Source: Law Journal (Brondstad, 10/07)

Teens with passengers at higher risk for fatal crashes, study finds

An interesting study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute has found Texas drivers age 15 to 17 who carry passengers are 12 times more likely to have a fatal crash than adults with passengers.

The report, released today, compared crash data between 2002 and 2011. It found that even as fatalities decreased, the percentage of novice drivers carrying passengers in fatal accidents jumped, indicating the safest practice for new drivers might be to go it alone — and to refrain from fumbling with their phones.

“Total teen fatal crashes per year declined, but the relative risk for young drivers carrying teen passengers actually increased substantially – at this same time, text messaging exploded in American society,” said Russell Henk, the primary author of the study. “We can’t scientifically state that there’s a direct link between those two things yet, but it seems reasonable to suspect a connection.”

What officials can conclusively say is in driving with passengers increases the relative risk for young drivers. Nationwide, drivers age 15-17, with one or more passengers age 13 to 17, are eight times more likely than adults with passengers to have a fatal accident. During the decade studied, the number of fatal teen accidents dropped 60 percent, but more of them happened when other teens were in the car.

“The decline in the number of novice drivers in fatal crashes certainly indicates substantial improvement,” according to the report. “At the same time, however, the increase in the proportion of fatal crashes involving novice drivers that also include multiple teen passengers relative to those crashes with somewhat older and more experienced – but still young – drivers, should at the very least raise cautionary flags with respect to the persistence of fatal crash issues among novice teen drivers that merit continued attention.”

The increased happened as many states, including Texas, enacted strict graduated licencing programs that limit when and with whom teen drivers may hit the road. Texas forbids drivers under 18 from driving with more than one passenger under age 21 during the first year of licensed driving, though exceptions for family members can apply.

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source: Chron (AP, 9/26)

Midland teen faces harder penalties for fatal hit-and-run crash following law change

A Midland teen arrested for fleeing the scene of a fatal wreck a week ago faces harsher penalties because of a new law that went into effect on Sept. 1. Fernando Alvarado, 18, posted a $65,000 bond and has been released on a felony charge of failure to stop and render aid. When he was arrested, he was booked on a third-degree felony charge, but the charge has since been refiled as a second-degree felony.

Before Sept. 1, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in the death of a person and failing to render aid was a third-degree felony. But under Texas Senate Bill 275 the charge now is second-degree felony, according to the Department of Public Safety.

The bill unanimously passed in the Senate on April 2 and unanimously passed in the House on May 4.

A second-degree felony charge carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison, while a third-degree felony charge carries a penalty of two to 10 years. Both charges carry an optional fine of up to $10,000,

Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said motorists involved in crashes commonly flee the scene because of drug possession, alcohol consumption or outstanding warrants.

He also said motorists might leave the scene of an accident because they are scared and don’t know what to do.

“It’s the wrong thing to do, but they do that,” Painter said.

He said motorists involved in a vehicle crash should remain at the scene and call 911 or flag down a passing driver so that they can call for emergency services.

Lt. Ray Leible said the Midland Police Department’s case load for hit-and-run crashes has so increased that there is an officer designated solely to those cases.

That investigator, Officer Kenneth Callahan, said there have been 382 hit-and-run wrecks this year. Of those crashes, two people suffered incapacitating injuries, 16 suffered non-incapacitating injuries and 24 suffered possible injuries, Callahan said.

The Sept. 15 wreck, which was the 35th fatality in 32 wrecks on roads inside Midland County this year, was the third fatal hit-and-run crash this year, according to Reporter-Telegram records.

The most recent crash occurred at about 3:56 a.m. Sept. 15 near the Stripes convenience store in the 2400 block of South Rankin Highway.

A pickup, driven by Alvarado, was leaving the store parking lot to head south on Rankin Highway when it was struck by a southbound SUV, driven by 28-year-old Noah Alexander Flemister, according to previous reports.

Both vehicles were forced off the roadway, causing the SUV to roll over. Flemister, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected. He was transported to Midland Memorial Hospital, where he died, according to previous reports.

Alvarado fled the scene and abandoned his pickup in the 2100 block of Belmont Street before fleeing on foot. Police arrested him in the 900 block of South Weatherford Street, according to previous reports.

Other fatal hit-and-run crashes in 2013 on Midland County roads:

-- Midlander Stefanie Moore, 22, was traveling south on Midkiff Road when she hit a 35-year-old Midland woman, who was walking east in the roadway on the south side of the intersection at Wadley Avenue, according to previous Reporter-Telegram reports of the May 17 incident.

The investigation showed the pedestrian did not have the right-of-way at the time of the incident, according to previous reports.

Moore fled the scene and the victim was transported to Midland Memorial Hospital, where she died.

Moore called to report an unrelated accident, and after an investigation she was identified as the driver in the hit-and-run. She was found to be intoxicated and was arrested on a second-degree felony charge of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle, according previous reports.

If convicted, Moore faces up to 20 years in prison.

-- A 44-year-old Midland man was westbound on a motorcycle on Front Street when an eastbound SUV, driven by 30-year-old Damien Duron, of San Angelo, turned north and collided with the motorcyclist, according to an officer at the scene of the May 25 crash.

The motorcyclist, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to MPD.

Duron fled on foot, leaving a 13-year-old passenger at the scene. Police found him a few minutes later in the 700 block of North Tilden Street. He had drunk five beers before getting behind the wheel, according to his arrest affidavit.

Duron is being held at Midland County Detention Center on a $300,000 bond for a was charged with a second-degree felony charge of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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Source: My West Texas (White, 9/21)

Injured 'Texas' dancer's condition improves

The “Texas” company member who was injured in an accident north of Dumas last week that killed five people has improved, Northwest Texas Hospital Caytie Martin spokeswoman said.

Timothy Johnson, 30, of Portland, Ore., now is in satisfactory condition at the hospital, said Caytie Martin of Northwest.

About 11:30 p.m. Aug. 12, after leaving a “Texas” end-of-summer party, a Ford Taurus carrying six cast and crew members in the production ran a stop sign at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 119 and U.S. Highway 287 and was struck by a tractor-trailer.

Authorities said the rig’s load toppled onto the driver’s side of the car.

Clint Diaz, 20, of Amarillo; Andrew Duncan, 20, of Wichita Falls; Amanda Starz, 20, of Timonium, Md.; Julian Arredondo IV, 24, of Haltom City; and Eric Harrison, 21, of Fort Worth died in the crash.

Johnson and the driver of the tractor-trailer — Theron Arthur McSay, 70, of Fort Collins, Colo. — were injured in the accident and transported to Northwest.

McSay was released from the hospital this week.

Department of Public Safety officials said officers found alcoholic beverage containers in the Taurus, and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission authorities are investigating the party attended by the “Texas” company members, which was held at Coldwater Ranch, owned by former Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation board member Joe Batson.

“We’ve held the party there for the last 22 years,” said Kris Miller, executive director of the foundation and a “Texas” cast member.

Miller, who said he attended the party, said no alcohol was being served to minors, but attendees 21 and older were allowed to bring their own beverages.

Two of the final week’s performances of “Texas” were canceled, but the final three shows of the musical’s 48th season went on as scheduled.

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Source: Amarillo (Bryant, 8/23)

Rusk roads 6 times deadlier than U.S. average

A lonely memorial on Texas 79 outside Henderson serves as a reminder that the first half of 2013 has been deadly on Rusk County roads.

Seventeen people have died in wrecks there since January 1 — almost six times the national average.

So alarming are the numbers that county officials will conduct a summit Thursday, convening local and state officials to determine why it’s happening and what can be done about it.

County Judge Joel Hale said the meeting is unprecedented in his two and a half years in office.

“The purpose of the summit is to identify what has had an impact in causing these accidents,” Hale said. “I think it is going to take time and education to reduce these accidents. People need to take responsibility and realize that you’ve got to pay attention when you’re driving.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports the national average for traffic deaths is five per 100,000 people per year. Rusk County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Roberts said 17 traffic fatalities the first half of this year, in a county with a population of 60,000, is alarming.

May was a particularly tragic month. Sandra Jones, 63, and Shari Standard, 62, were killed May 1 in a three-vehicle crash just northeast of Henderson on Texas 43.

Six days later, three Stephen F. Austin State University freshmen were killed in wreck near Mount Enterprise.

Hale said several different groups would attend the summit, including members of the Texas Department of Transportation, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Rusk County law enforcement , Department of Public Safety and several school districts.

Jason Taylor, whose father died in a 2007 wreck on Texas 79 south of Henderson, suggested enhanced technology on cell phones as a reason for more road fatalities everywhere.

“Technology is a good thing, but something is wrong when you can’t disconnect from Facebook or MySpace while you’re driving,” said Taylor, who is pastor of Bar None Cowboy Church in Tatum.

“We as humans are hooked on media. Nobody thinks anything bad is going to happen to them, but it is happening to people.” DPS spokeswoman trooper Jean Dark said there were many variables to consider when analyzing traffic fatalities.

“You’re not going to be able to look at a fatal accident and say it was one thing that caused it,” Dark said. “How many of them are dealing with local people versus non-locals? Was there alcohol involved? Changes in speed limit and road condition are also factors.”

Dark said physics determine whether an accident on the road is deadly, highlighting the amount of energy transferred from one object to another.

The landscape of East Texas adds another element of danger, she said; illustrated by accidents like the one Feb. 5, 2012 when three men died after the car they were in hit a tree on Texas 42.

According to the most recent crash statistics released by the Texas Department of Transportation, there were 751 total crashes in Rusk County in 2011. Of those, 12 were fatalities.

Hale, a long-time friend of Jones and Standard, said the county can’t sit back and not do anything about its growing number of traffic fatalities.

“When it happens in other places, you really don’t think that much about it,” he said. “But when it happens in your community to people you know, it really makes you sad and you know the impact it’s having on those peoples’ families. You just want to try and do something about it.”

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Source: News Journal (Gordon, 7/15)

Seven wrecks a day in Odessa

Seven a day.

That’s how many automobile crashes occurred on average throughout the calendar year in Odessa in 2012, according to statistics provided by the Odessa Police Department. Eighteen of those crashes resulted in 19 deaths. (These are just the crashes that the police department investigates.)

This year, so far, the city has had more than 1,000 crashes. Five of those wrecks resulted in five deaths.

But the number of citations has skyrocketed, a comparison from the first few months this year (January to May) to last year: 1,585 citations were given last year compared to 3,474 so far this year according to Sgt. Sherrie Carruth of OPD. Carruth, spokeswoman for the Odessa Police Department, said there have been significant citations written because of increased traffic and targeted enforcement, such as Safe Zones (around schools), Click It or Ticket and Selective Traffic Enforcement Program.

The police department employs just less than 185 officers.

“The Odessa Police Department is budgeted for 182 and of that, 138 are below the rank of sergeant,” said Carruth stated in an email response to questions. “Traffic volume along with calls for service demands and all other demands placed on department resources are managed on a priority basis. To the extent that we possibly can, we engage in traffic enforcement as a general product of patrol and also in targeted efforts to suppress speed. The workload is such that additional resources would be welcomed and would increase our ability to address all demands for service including demands placed on us by increased traffic volume.”

She said there is no one specific day that produces the most wrecks every year, that wrecks occur on any given day. “Memorial Day Weekend is not considered a dangerous weekend for OPD,” Carruth said. “The majority of major accidents occurred on the highways.”

Repeated messages left with a local Texas Department of Public Safety office were not returned. Steve LeSueur, a former patrol officer and the new communications officer for the OPD, has been with the OPD since August 2010 and said a lot of wrecks occur here because of speeding and driver inattention. Running red lights, another safety hazard, has led to wrecks, as well, he said.

He did not see many wrecks happen because of texting or cell phone usage or from people unsafely changing lanes, though.

His advice for motorists? “Pay attention, look both ways, be a defensive driver,” he said.

SIMPLE ARITHMETIC

James Beauchamp, president of the Midland Odessa Transportation Alliance, pointed to a couple of reasons why the area has experienced an uptick in wrecks: more vehicles on the roads and more miles driven.

“From 2011 to 2012, the number of registered vehicles here in the Odessa district — and primarily, the population based here is Midland and Odessa — increased by nearly 33,000,” he said. “The number of miles driven daily increased by over a million. We know there’s a lot more people, there’s a lot more cars, and we’re driving a lot more miles. That puts a strain on the existing infrastructure. There’s been very little out here in added capacity. Really, to be quite frank, we’re even pretty sparse in safety improvements. We’re making some, but not that many.”

Drivers can have a difficult time adjusting to a rapid type of change in the environment, Beauchamp said, and they end up “getting hurried, rushed, agitated, anxious, whatever you want to call it. And they end up making poor decisions.” That’s an explanation — not an excuse — for those decisions, he said. Capacity constraints can play a role, and driver behaviors and attitudes are exacerbated by that situation, creating a perfect storm.

CRASH DATA

Statewide, speed involvement crashes are down from 2008, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. In 2008, there were 26,092 crashes in which speed was a factor, including everything from fatality wrecks to noninjury crashes. In 2012, there were 24,189 crashes. In 2012, 679 of those wrecks resulted in fatalities, down from 821 in 2008. In the three years between 2008 and 2012 (2009-2011), deaths in crashes were in the 600s range. For the year to date, there have 212 speed-involvement crashes.

The fatality numbers are fewer for crashes attributed to cell/mobile phone usage and driver inattention and distraction in vehicle. Deaths caused by driver inattention and distraction hit 444 in 2008, with numbers falling into the 300s in the four years after. For the year to date, there have been 138 fatal crashes caused by driver inattention and distraction.

However, the overall number of crashes because of driver inattention and distraction is significantly higher than those involving speed: in 2008, there were 101,509 crashes, with 2012 posting a number of 88,785.

But a look at fatality crash numbers attributed to cell/mobile phone use have remained pretty constant: Twenty-nine fatal crashes occurred in 2008, with 35 reported in 2012, and the three intervening years all had numbers in the 40s. Total crashes reported from 2008 to 2012 have all been in the low to mid-3000s.

Legislation to ban texting while driving died in this legislative session.

In a Friday email statement to the OA, Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland (R-82nd District) expressed disappointment about the failure of the legislation, House Bill 63, which he introduced.

“Unfortunately, the bill proposing the statewide ban on texting will not become law this year. Legislators were poised to act on this legislation that would have saved lives. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation denied lawmakers the opportunity to move House Bill 63 forward and subsequently denied Texans a chance to make our roads safer. I am incredibly disappointed by this result.

“Next legislative session, I will again attempt to put a statewide law in place to deter Texas drivers from texting while driving. It is devastating that we will have two more years of accidents and deaths on our Texas roadways from distracted driving that could have been prevented.

“Although there is no statewide law stopping Texans from picking up their phone to text while driving, I would implore everyone to focus on driving and put your phone down — it can wait.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (under the U.S. Department of Transportation), there were 32,367 deaths from motor vehicle wrecks in 2011 (last year information available). Texas had 3,016 deaths that year. NHTSA said 2012 data would be available in August.

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Source: OAOA (Munsch, 5/28)

Teen to Be Tried as Adult in Texas Van Crash

A South Texas judge ruled Wednesday that a 16-year-old boy accused of killing nine illegal immigrants in a crash while fleeing Border Patrol should be prosecuted as an adult.

Hidalgo County District Judge Mario Ramirez said prosecutors had shown Junior Benjamin Rodriguez was sophisticated enough to be tried as an adult and that it was important to send a message to other teens who would consider smuggling immigrants and running from authorities. Ramirez later arraigned the teen as an adult on nine counts of murder and set bond at $25,000 per count.

Ramirez ordered reporters to not photograph Rodriguez, publish the names of federal agents and other witnesses who testified in the case or report in detail any evidence from this week's proceeding.

The Associated Press plans to appeal the judge's order.

"We're very troubled by this act of prior restraint in the courtroom today, and we plan to pursue all of our available legal remedies," said Laura Malone, the AP's interim general counsel.

Rodriguez was 15 last April when authorities say he fled Border Patrol in Palmview while driving a minivan packed with 17 illegal immigrants. A Border Patrol agent testified at a hearing last year that another person had bailed out when Rodriguez was initially stopped, but then sped off when the agent approached the van.

What happened next is disputed. A witness testified last year that he saw a Border Patrol vehicle bump the van before it crashed, sending immigrants flying onto the ground. But the Border Patrol agent testified last year the van had already crashed on a highway frontage road by the time he arrived.

On Wednesday, the third day of the hearing, a juvenile probation officer testified that his department recommended the boy should be transferred to the adult justice system due to the severity of the crime.

But a psychologist testifying for the defense said that a 15-year-old is poorly equipped to consider all consequences of his actions, particularly in a stressful situation. She said sending the boy into the adult system would be harmful for him and the community.

Prosecutors hammered the point that if Rodriguez had not fled Border Patrol the immigrants he was carrying would still be alive and he would likely be free. Rodriguez is a U.S. citizen.

"They (smuggling organizations) continue to use juveniles because they know the consequences are less serious for them," said prosecutor Amy Ortega.

In his closing statement, defense attorney Jaime Aleman asked the judge to differentiate between intent and an accident.

"It was a chaos of the moment act," Aleman said. "This was not an intentional act."

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Source: ABC News (AP, 3/28)

5 tips to survive emergencies on the road

Here are some potentially catastrophic driving situations that can be turned into quickly forgotten incidents with simple, but effective, action. For most, passengers can save the day. PM contributor Mac Demere, a former racing driver and driving instructor, offers a few simple tips to keep you alive out there.

Keep calm and drive on

Most fatal single-vehicle crashes involve the vehicle running off the road. Here's what happens in many of them: An inattentive or distracted driver allows the car's right tires to drop off the pavement or onto Interstate rumble strips. The loud noise suddenly alerts the driver that he's drifting to the right, causing him to yank left on the steering wheel. The wayward front tire regains grip while one or both rear tires are in the loose stuff. With little or no rear traction, the vehicle spins out and leaves the highway—and could even flip.

The way to avoid this fate is to stay calm and not overreact. If you find yourself drifting off the road, let off the gas and allow the car to slow down, and gently ease back on the road. Do not depress the brake unless you see an obstacle approaching and need to get back in your lane faster. Whatever you do, be smooth with the steering; a little goes a long way at high speeds.

Put It in Neutral

A stuck throttle is an automotive mugging: It's unexpected, petrifying, and what you do in the next few seconds may change your life forever. The solution is easy: Slap the shift lever into neutral. In the vast majority of cars, the passenger can do this as easily as the driver. Almost all modern cars have physical or electronic devices that prevent the transmission from going into reverse or park while you're driving down the road, as well as electronic limiters to preclude engine damage, so you don't have to worry about hurting the car by putting it in neutral. A manual transmission car might take a little bit more force to put into the neutral gate, but it'll go as well.

I've experienced stuck accelerators caused by faulty cables, misplaced floor mats, and panicked driving-event students who mistakenly mash the throttle pedal rather than brake. I've always quickly cured the problem by bumping the shifter into neutral or, when driving a manual-transmission car, depressing the clutch.

Get a spotter

Every car has blind spots. And today's cars increasingly have thick, airbag-filled A-pillars (the vertical post that connects roof and body) that can hide cars around you. If you're riding with a passenger, then, employ him or her as your spotter. I ask my passengers to say, "clear right" or "traffic right," when I'm trying to turn left. I'm also happy to have them point out things I might have missed, such as "bicyclist ahead." Stay away from saying "no" and "go." (At ages 6 and 8, my kids said, "clear, high!" when I passed a car on a two-lane. The things that happen when you're a race driver...)

This might take some getting used to. Most of us don't like back-seat (or front-seat) drivers, nor are we accustomed to offering advice or watching the road with care when we're not driving. But having a little help from the passenger seat will make everybody's ride a little safer.

I can't see clearly now

"I can't see," the driver shouted at me. As he ineffectively batted at the suddenly fogged windshield, I switched the heating system from "recirculation" to "fresh air" and engaged the air conditioner. Within seconds the windshield was clear, except for the smudgy patch left by his fingerprints.

Engaging the air conditioner (regardless of the temperature setting) and allowing the system to suck in fresh air lowers the humidity inside the car. Many vehicles now automatically engage the air conditioner and disengage recirculation when you select the defroster to avoid a fogged-up windshield.

Speaking of poor visibility, there's probably been a time in your life that you've forgotten to change your wiper blades soon enough and have been caught out in a rainstorm with blades that did more smearing than clearing. You might be able to revive them for one last storm with a quick cleaning. Rub the wiper blade with the sponge side of a gas-station squeegee (or the sponge from the office coffee room) and a clean, dry towel. Get the windshield, inside and out, while you're at it. Don't procrastinate about buying new blades the next day.

Make a plan B. And C. And D...

Recently I was following someone who was driving while texting who almost ran off the left side of a two-lane, as a car approached from ahead. Watching this unfold just in front of me, I had to figure out how to avoid it. Plan A was to pound the brakes. Plan B, backing up, was not a great option because I couldn't see far enough around the previous curve of this heavily traveled road to know whether other cars were coming. I crossed out Plan C, escape routes, because of earthen banks on both sides of the road. Plan D was to employ Plan B and go into reverse if the oncoming driver veered around the errant driver and into my lane.

Fortunately, the texter completed his text and returned to his lane, while the oncoming driver stopped. The moral of the story: Don't text and drive, but also work through possible options before an emergency happens. Then if it does, you'll be better prepared and able to think your way out of it.

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Source: Yahoo News (AP, 1/30)

Texas takes tort reform too far

By Patricia Kilday Hart

Of all William Shakespeare's enduring lines, perhaps the one that has resonated most through the generations comes from "Henry VI": "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Taken out of context, it's a great lawyer joke, as if the Bard knew modern society would blame lawyers for everything from inscrutable contracts to ridiculous consumer warning labels. (My favorite: an admonition against running at night on my son's glow-in-the-dark Frisbee.) A lawyer-free world conjures a society free of hair-splitting and hucksterism - in other words, Utopia.

Or does it? In Texas, we're learning what happens when you can't turn to a lawyer for help. Two strong forces are making it nearly impossible to seek redress for injury in state courts: sweeping tort reform laws and a Texas Supreme Court with an activist conservative bent. The results aren't pretty.

Consider the case of Michelle Gaines, who in June 2006 was a popular Palestine teenager with a bright future when an 18-wheeler hauling an oil rig smashed into her car, causing severe brain damage. A Tyler jury ordered the driver who caused the wreck and a businessman involved with the oil rig to pay her $8 million - money Gaines' family desperately needs to provide for her rehabilitation and care for the remainder of her life.

A Tyler appeals court overturned the jury's decision, claiming there was no evidence to support the verdict, and the Texas Supreme Court recently declined to consider Gaines' appeal.

And yet trial testimony showed that the men had destroyed crucial evidence demonstrating joint ownership of the rig and that the driver had been bribed to alter his story. Gaines' attorneys say the court's decision violates precedent that evidence should be construed in a light favorable to a jury's verdict.

Right to jury trial

"It's an outrageous decision," said University of Texas law professor Steve Goode, a member of Gaines' legal team. (The Gaineses' attorneys have asked the court to reconsider.) "It's astounding that they refused to consider this as evidence against this defendant."

But it's not just attorneys involved in specific cases who believe the court is engaging in wrong-headed activism. Tea party activists are beginning to question whether Texas Republicans have dismantled the Seventh Amendment - the right to a jury trial - in their slavish devotion to limiting lawsuits.

Former Harris County District Judge John Devine, who recently defeated Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina with tea party support, has criticized the court's willingness to overturn jury verdicts. And two independent studies suggest that the Texas Supreme Court - once criticized as biased for trial attorneys - has swung to the opposite philosophical pole.

UT law professor David Anderson, in a 2007 study of 69 opinions written by the court in 2004 and 2005, found that defendants - the parties accused of causing injuries - won 87 percent of the time.

Contempt for juries

Is that different from other states? Anderson examined all state appellate cases involving Wal-Mart between 1998 and 2005. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the discount chain in all 12 cases it received. There were 81 other cases in other states, but Wal-Mart prevailed in only 56 percent of them.

Texas Watch, reviewing cases involving consumer complaints from 2004 to 2010, found the court overturned jury verdicts an amazing 74 percent of the time. Wrote the study's authors: "The Texas Supreme Court is expected to respect reasonable jury verdicts. … In the final analysis, the court fails this test, impermissibly usurping the authority of juries and demonstrating contempt for their verdicts."

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips uses Texas as a cautionary tale against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's plan for federal tort reform. "Texans are losing their Seventh Amendment rights because they can't get lawyers to take cases anymore," Phillips wrote in a recent blog post.

He cited the case of Charles Caldwell, who died in October 2008 in a Dallas-area nursing home when attendants tried to force medications down his throat, but instead filled his lungs. When his son tried to sue, he could not find a willing lawyer.

Why? Texas tort reform legislation put such low caps on damages that no lawyer could afford to take the case. Yet, earlier this year, the Texas Board of Nursing issued a reprimand against the nurse for committing major medical errors.

Houston attorney Mark McCaig, has been warring with Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which lavishes campaign contributions on friendly politicians, by urging the Republican Party to rethink its stance. He's often dismissed as a phony conservative since he works for trial lawyer Steve Mostyn, a prominent Democratic campaign contributor.

Shakespeare knew it

But McCaig believes the rise of the tea party will challenge tort reform. "What you have seen happen is (that) it has taken away the rights of people with legitimate claims. It goes against the notion of personal responsibility." In our society, that means access to the courts, and to lawyers.

But Shakespeare knew that. The speaker of the famous line from "Henry VI" wanted to replace the rule of law with the personal whims of despots. In a society bereft of legal boundaries, there's no need for lawyers.

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Source: Houston Chronicle (Hart, 8/9)

When is the most dangerous time to drive?

Texas weather is completely unpredictable, and we have some of the craziest drivers in the urban areas, but also some of the most courteous drivers in the rural areas. But the question is this: when is the most dangerous time to drive?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August is the most dangerous month of the year to drive in, and it turns out, statistically speaking, that Saturday is the most dangerous day to drive. But why is that true?

Some might argue that winter is the most dangerous due to snowfall and icy roads, which often means dangerous road conditions. But sometimes people don't really think about how drivers react to these condition. It turns out most people actually stay indoors and off the roads, and those who do go out for a drive, tend to drive slower under inclement weather.

To where in summer, kids are out of school and people travel. Speed is the single greatest factor to serious car accidents, not so much because of the violation of the posted speed limits but because drivers ignore the weather conditions that call for a lower speed. Car accidents are the number 1 cause of death for people in the ages of 1 and 34. Auto accidents kill more than 40,000 people in the U.S. every year.

In looking at the last 5 years of statistics for traffic fatalities of all vehicle types, the third quarter (July-September) tops numbers for all other quarters for number of vehicular accidents, but in general spring and summer months (2nd and 3rd quarters) are when more accidents occur than in fall and winter months (1st and 4th quarters).

On average, the spring and summer months have 11.3% more fatalities per year than the fall and winter months. The 3rd quarter alone is 5.25% higher than the 2nd quarter (Apr-Jun), 6.64% higher than the 4th quarter (Oct-Dec), but 23% higher than the 1st quarter (Jan-Mar)! So, in opposition to what most people think as the season with the most difficult driving conditions turns out to have the fewest number of fatalities.