El Paso, TX — A man was injured in El Paso this past Saturday morning (October 10, 2015) and was last said to be in critical condition at a hospital after two-car wreck on Joe Battle Boulevard. Police said that Manuel Cano, 21, was hurt after his Honda Accord crashed into the back of a pickup truck driven by Raul Morales, 29.
This happened at about 2:45 a.m. on Saturday morning, at the intersection of Joe Battle Blvd. and Pellicano Drive.
According to the news reports, Manuel Cano was driving his Honda south along Joe Battle that morning while Morales was driving his GMC pickup truck east along Pellicano Drive.
Morales apparently tried to merge onto southbound Joe Battle that morning, police said, when Cano rear-ended his truck.
While the wreck didn’t injure Morales, it forced Cano’s Honda to flip over and critically injure him. At the last update, he was at a local hospital in critical condition.
Later, the police said they think speed and alcohol were factors.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
It seems like the news reports are backhandedly implying that the victim here was under the influence of alcohol. That may be the case, I don’t really know because the news reports were a little vague. However, if alcohol was a factor on behalf of the injured driver, then I think we ought to look and see where this young man had been in the hours leading up to the wreck.
The bottom line is that this accident might not be entirely his fault, particularly if he was at a bar or some other establishment that failed to serve alcohol in a responsible fashion. Now, I want to be very clear here, my purpose in writing this is not to commend drunk driving or place the blame on someone else’s shoulders. Rather, I want Texas’ laws on drunk driving accidents to have their full effect on situations like this one.
Texas law clearly states (in the Texas Dram Shop Act of 1987) that providing alcohol to someone who is obviously intoxicated and a danger to themselves & others is prohibited. Moreover, a bar or other licensed establishment that breaks these rules can be punished with fines and lawsuits in civil court. If someone gets drunk at a bar, leaves and gets into an accident, then the bar and the accused drunk driver are considered liable for the damage done. Think of them as accomplices to the same crime.
I’m not saying that drunk drivers are innocent, far from it. But there are plenty of bars out there who take advantage of peoples’ intoxicated states and try to sell them more alcohol when the customer should really be cut off for their own safety — not to mention the safety of others. That’s why it’s important to find out where this driver had been in the hours leading up to this wreck, so that if a bar was involved, they can be held accountable as well.
Grossman Law Offices
