Florence, TX — A young man was killed near his hometown of Florence after a deadly car accident early this past Saturday morning. Police identified the victim as Jason Herner, 25 years old, and said that the accident happened around 3:30 a.m. that morning.
Herner had apparently been driving his Honda Accord along Highway 195 that morning, just north of Florence, when he lost control of his car. The vehicle swerved off the highway, officers said, and crashed headlong into a tree.
The impact from the accident killed Herner immediately and there weren’t any others in his car. Right now, police don’t know why Herner was speeding that night (if he was) and whether that played a factor in the loss of control. Hopefully, they’ll provide more helpful information soon.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
I don’t know all the details here, but I think that a lot of people are going to assume that this young man was either A) speeding and being reckless, B) driving under the influence, or C) both. The news reports didn’t say anything about alcohol here, but given the early morning hour, I can see how some people might make the connection. But let me be clear: I don’t think it’s helpful to jump to any conclusions until all the facts are settled.
If alcohol even was a factor (and I’m not saying it was), then I think that only points to a potentially bigger problem: where the alcohol came from. When someone makes the decision to drink and drive, they should have to face their own consequences. There’s no question about that. But when someone serves too much alcohol to, say, someone who’s already drunk, then I think that person also has a unique responsibility in that situation.
Now, this isn’t just a hypothetical discussion with made-up rules, I’m actually paraphrasing Texas law here. Under Texas dram shop law, bars and other licensed providers of alcohol aren’t allowed to serve customers who are obviously intoxicated. When they do that, they’re creating dangerous situations not only for other people but for the customers themselves.
Let’s use an example. If I plan on having a few drinks at a bar, but get a little carried away and, over the course of 4 hours, have 18 drinks delivered to my table, I would hope that the bartender would realize that I’m under the influence and cut me off. Anything less is flat-out unlawful and harmful to me. Furthermore, I might not only hurt myself if I decided to leave the bar while drunk, but I might hurt someone else. Bars have the power to stop (or at least try to stop) that from happening by cutting people off, but it’s much too easy to keep serving drinks and keep making money — so not many bars actually cut their customers off.
Again, I don’t really know if alcohol was a factor here, but you see what I mean when I say that it’s indicative of a larger problem? I’m talking about the issue of bars that over-serve their customers and think it’s ok.
— Grossman Law Offices
