The City of San Antonio has taken a proactive approach to dealing with the issue of drunk driving. In a briefing the police chief outlined the steps the S.A.P.D has and intends to take to address the crime of driving while intoxicated (DWI). Part of the briefing was to ask the city council supports legislation that addresses drunk driving, which they did so the next day. The bills were:
- House Bill No. 99 Aggravated DWI,
- House Bill No. 439 Sobriety Checkpoints,
- House Bill No. 473 Ignition Interlock for 1st time DWI offenders.
Just before for the 81st legislature convened in 2009, I started to visit our council members trying to get them to pass a resolution in support of sobriety checkpoints. I had mentioned that to the chief in a meeting and He stated that if I was able to convince them to do that he would go up the Austin to testify for them. I visited quite a few council members that year but was not able to make any progress. The legislature convened and I decided to focus on getting them to support the bill, which made it further then it has ever been in the legislative process but needless to say it didn’t become a law.
In April 25 of 2010 my neighbors’ oldest and only remaining son Petey along with his friends Eric Pena and Lauren Deleon were killed by a drunk driver. Their youngest son Ricky had been killed four years earlier in the same drunk driving crash that had killed my son Matthew and nearly killed me. In both crashes the drivers were young and not hard core drunks and both suffered minor injuries. After Petey’s crash and the shock that came from it I thought to myself that this time I was not going to back down and do all that I could to get the support needed to get sobriety checkpoints here in Texas. I contacted the chief and asked if he was still willing to go to Austin to testify and after he got word back to me that he would, I began to petition the city council members for their support.
Then on the 1st of February I got a call from the chief and he told me that the next day he would be briefing to city council and the mayor about getting the city to support some DWI legislation this 82nd legislature including sobriety checkpoints and that he would be going to Austin to provide testimony on behalf of them. He invited me to attend the meeting and the day after the briefing city council unanimously voted to support the legislation. I think this is a great step towards getting drunk driving under control and one step closer to elimination. Thanks to Chief McManus and the San Antonio City Council.
One battle won but the war still rages and lives are still on the line, forward and onward.
Edward
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