San Antonio, TX — There was a head-on collision outside the Lackland AFNB this weekend, and two people were apparently injured. Police aren’t releasing a lot of information at the moment, but it appears that a woman and a man named David Lopez were injured after their cars collided on U.S. Highway 90 West.
It happened around 12:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, August 17, just west of the base. Police said that either David Lopez’s Acura or the woman’s SUV was driving in the wrong lanes of traffic when it caused a head-on collision.
One news report said that the woman in the SUV was injured and taken to a hospital in critical condition, but another news report said that David Lopez was critically injured and that the woman in the SUV was intoxicated.
So far, the details have not been clarified by police and they are still investigating. The victims were taken to University Hospital.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
If alcohol was a factor here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was, then I think the police should also investigate where the wrong-way driver had been in the hours before the accident. Why is that important? Well, alcohol is a drug, and it has certain effects on your decision-making abilities when you drink too much of it.
Texas licenses certain bars and restaurants to provide alcohol and sell it, but they have to adhere to the TABC rules (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission). The biggest rule is this: bars can’t sell/provide alcohol to customers who are already obviously drunk. I don’t know all the details of this accident, but if someone is intoxicated enough to drive the wrong way on a major highway, then I would venture to say that a bartender probably should have been able to tell when they were serving drinks. Obviously, I could be wrong here about the purported facts, but this kind of accident happens all the time, it seems, and alcohol-related crashes are a major problem in Texas. Not only do drivers need to make better decisions, but we need to start holding rule-breaking bars accountable when they decide to over-serve their customers and let them into the streets.
— Grossman Law Offices
