Amarillo, TX — There was an accident reported along Grand Street in Amarillo early Sunday morning of this week, May 31, 2015. Apparently, a driver whom police think may have been under the influence, injured himself and three other men after he lost control of his car and swerved into oncoming traffic.
This was around 2:15 a.m. along Grand Street & Sanborn Street.
The injured were identified as Jose Carrillo, 37, Miguel Ramos, 31, Steven Ramos, 33, and Jerrald Preciado, 36.
According to the APD, Jose Carrillo had been driving his car along North Grand Street that morning when he tried to make a turn onto Sanborn, but accidentally ended up swerved into oncoming traffic. His car crashed head-on into Miguel Ramos’s car, injuring Miguel and his two passengers: Jerrald Preciado and Steven Ramos.
Jose Carrillo was actually the most seriously injured and he had to be rushed to a hospital in critical condition. Police later said that the others were taken to the hospital with lesser injuries.
They believe that Carrillo may have been under the influence of alcohol that morning, but they haven’t filed any charges just yet.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
One thing the news reports left out here is where the at-fault driver had been the morning, before the accident. If you noticed the time at which this wreck happened, then you’d know that it’s suspiciously close to when bars close and the customers go home.
Now, a responsible bar makes every effort to ensure none of their customers are getting drunk — that leads to drunk driving accidents. However, a lot of bars in Texas don’t care much for following the law and will release drunk drivers onto the road every night at 2:00 a.m. A bad combination of an irresponsible bar and an irresponsible customer means that the customer can be served well past the point of intoxication, then get into his car and get into an accident.
The reason I’m bringing this up on my blog is because most people would assume that if you get drunk and then get into a wreck, the law only cares about punishing the drunk driver. In reality, Texas law holds bars accountable for over-service all the time, it’s just that the news never prints or talks about it. It’s called Dram Shop Law, and the idea is that bars with licenses to serve alcohol need to be held accountable just like we hold drunk drivers accountable.
I don’t know if this person was really under the influence in Amarillo or if he had been at a bar in the hours leading up to the wreck, but it’s something to look into. At the end of the day, there may be more people to punish than just this driver.
— Grossman Law Offices
