'If drinking before five is wrong, I don't want to be right': Tweet 'posted by DUI driver hours before he crashed into kindergarten teacher and her son' killing them both

A kindergarten teacher and her son were killed following a car crash on Friday evening with a suspect -- who was found wearing only a towel and a BAC of 0.27%.

The accident took place at about 11.15pm in Northwest Austin.

Peggy Howard, 60, was declared dead just before midnight, the channel adds. She was a kindergarten teacher at Steiner Ranch Elementary School.

Worried about late-night driving, she had earlier dropped off son Cale Howard, 18, at the movies with a friend and had just picked him up.

Howard, a senior at Vandegrift High School, later died at Round Rock Medical Center several hours after the accident, Four Points News reports.

The deadly accident involved three vehicles.

Nicholas Michael Justin Wyzycowski, 21, drove a Chevrolet Avalanche when he rear-ended the Toyota Prius with Peggy and Cale Howard inside, the channel reports. An official said both cars moved into oncoming traffic, hitting a nearby Toyota Camry.

Witnesses at the scene told police the person driving the Avalanche fled from the scene without checking on the other victims, KXAN reports. He is described as only wearing a towel at the time of the accident.

Wyzykowski, witnesses added, was reportedly driving between 80 and 100 miles per hour. He reportedly was 'uncooperative, indifferent and cocky' with the investigating officer and refused to take a sobriety test, KXAN reports.

Wyzykowski's blood alcohol content (BAC), taken for medical purposes, was 0.27% -- more than three times the legal limit in Texas. He faces 19 felony charges, including 2 counts of intoxication manslaughter.

Three female passengers in the Toyota Camry had broken bones, statesman.com reports. One woman had a broken neck and another had a broken back.

Howard's friend in the Prius was sitting in the backseat and survived the crash, but had a broken femur, Four Points News reports.

The accident has left friends of the victims stunned.

Jim Freid and wife April, whose daughters went to school with Cale Howard, pulled up Wyzykowski's Twitter page on Saturday. Wyzykowski's account has since been removed, but Freid saved the posts.

Eight hours before the crash, Wyzykowski allegedly tweeted 'If drinking before 5 is wrong, I don't want to be right.' Another tweet, posted around 9pm, said 'Swangin.'

'Devastation, just absolute sadness,' Steiner Ranch Principal Susan Fambrough told KVUE. 'Because how do you explain to a 5-year-old that their teacher is gone?'

In a letter published online, Fambrough said the school has 'a plan in place' for students when they return to school on January 6.

Counselors will also available for all Vandegrift High School students needing support, principal Charlie Little wrote in a separate letter published on Sunday. A student support event was held on Sunday at 2pm, as well.

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Source: Daily Mail (Szathmary, 12/29)

Teen Who Killed Four People Got Off On Probation Because He's Rich

A 16-year-old boy who drunkenly killed four people got probation this week because the judge — with no apparent irony — agreed with the boy's defense that he was a victim of "affluenza," whose parents taught him wealth and privilege shield consequences. The teen had faced up to twenty years in prison.

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Couch admitted to four counts of manslaughter after he and seven other boys stole alcohol from Walmart, piled into his car and struck and killed four pedestrians while going 70 miles per hour in a 40 zone. One of his passengers remains in the hospital with severe brain damage, and nine other bystanders were also injured.

Couch's BAC was a .24 and he also had Valium in his system. According to reports, he was belligerent at the scene, at one point saying, "I'm outta here." Prosecutors were hoping to get up to 20 years.

Couch's defense was that he was a victim of his parents' wealth and privilege; in that he never had to face consequences, which an expert summarized prior to sentencing.

He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch's parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed 14-year-old girl.

Miller also pointed out that Couch was allowed to drive at 13. He said the teen was emotionally flat and needed years of therapy. At the time of the fatal wreck, Couch had a blood alcohol content of .24, said Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. It is illegal for a minor to drive with any amount of alcohol in his or her system.

The victims' families sort of agree with the reasoning, in that they too feel that Couch's privilege helped him avoid consequences.

Couch is now being sent to a $500,000-a-year counseling center. There are apparently five civil wrongful death suits pending against him totaling tens of millions of dollars.

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Source: Gawker (Bluestone, 12/10)

Dallas Cops Are Writing Half as Many Tickets as They Did Five Years Ago

Driving in Dallas sucks for a lot of reasons (traffic, terrible drivers, humongous potholes, et al), but overzealous traffic cops aren't one of them. This isn't just the anecdotal experience of a guy who, having been ticketed three times in five months as a teenager in Richardson, discovered similar infractions are routinely ignored by Dallas' finest. It's statistics.

As The Dallas Morning News' Scott Goldstein reports today, the number of traffic citations in Dallas dropped by 15 percent for the past year. The year before, the decline was 18 percent. The year before that, another 15 percent.

It's not a new phenomenon. A chart presented to Dallas City Council's Ad Hoc Judicial Nominations Committee shows a steady decline in tickets, from 495,007 in fiscal year 2007 to 211,843 in FY 2013.

The "no duh" explanation is that police are writing fewer tickets. The "focus of everyday Patrol Division Officers seems to have shifted away from writing citations," Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata noted in his presentation, noting that the average beat cop pulls out his ticket book almost 600 fewer times per year than he used to. In the traffic division, the number of "high writers" -- those writing more than 1,000 per year -- is half of what it once was.

The slightly more complex reason is that DPD is making a conscious shift away from traditional traffic enforcement techniques.

"The purpose of traffic enforcement is to improve traffic safety, not to raise revenue," Chief David Brown told Goldstein in an email last year. "We don't believe the citizens of Dallas want its police department writing citations to raise revenues."

And finally, the most complex reason lies with Dallas' beleaguered municipal courts system. A traffic citation can be costly to prosecute. Reforms implemented over the past year and a half have made things more efficient by disposing of more cases through guilty pleas and slashing the number of dismissals, but the city is still in the process of "rightsizing" its municipal court system.

The end result, though, is the same. You're half as likely to get a ticket in Dallas as you were five years ago.

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Source: Dallas Observer (Nicholson, 12/03)

Insurance industry worries about older drivers with smartphones

In any conversation about distracted driving – especially texting behind the wheel – it is almost always in the context of youthful drivers. After all, they're the ones addicted to their smartphones, right?

Not so fast. Increasingly it appears that a growing number of those heads glancing down at smartphone screens behind the wheel have gray hair. Older drivers are quickly catching up with young drivers when it comes to staying connected while driving.

And it's not just texting. A July 2013 survey by State Farm Insurance found a big jump in the percentage of drivers who own smartphones, particularly among drivers age thirty and older. At the same time the percentage of drivers who access the Internet on their phone while driving has nearly doubled over the past five years, going up from 13% in 2009 to 24% in 2013.

More hands-free talking

The survey results also showed the use of hands-free cell phones while driving has increased, while the percentage of people talking on a hand-held cell phone or texting while driving has become stagnant over the past three years.

This may be due, in part, to the growing number of new cars that have a Bluetooth connection. With this system, a driver may answer a call and carry on a conversation simply by pushing a button on the steering wheel, without removing the phone from a pocket or a purse.

While there has been research that suggests talking on a hands-free phone is also distracting, the same could be said for a driver conversing with passengers. It's all a matter of degree. But it's the growing presence of electronic gadgets among drivers that keeps insurance agents up at night.

Multiple distractions

"As smart phone ownership increases for all age groups, the safety community must ensure we are keeping pace with our understanding of the types of distractions drivers face," said Chris Mullen, Director of Technology Research at State Farm. "Much attention is paid toward reducing texting while driving, but we must also be concerned about addressing the growing use of multiple mobile web services while driving."

While 86% of drivers age 18-29 have smartphones, the new data shows 64% of drivers age 50 to 64 do as well, a 20% jump in two years. Even 39% of drivers 65 and older now have smartphones, the survey found.

Distracted driving is a major concern for the insurance industry, which profits when there are fewer accidents. But while most concede that texting while driving is very dangerous, it's less clear that simply talking and driving is.

Questioning conventional wisdom

Another study from Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, also conducted this year, finds that talking on a phone while driving does not increase the risk of a crash.

For the study, Carnegie Mellon's Saurabh Bhargava and the London School of Economics and Political Science's Vikram S. Pathania examined calling and crash data from 2002 to 2005, a period when most cell phone carriers offered pricing plans with free calls on weekdays after 9 p.m. They compared data from mobile network operators and accident reports and found that there was no direct correlation between the number of phone calls made during a certain time period and the number of crashes during the same time.

"Using a cell phone while driving may be distracting, but it does not lead to higher crash risk in the setting we examined," said Bhargava, who is an assistant professor of social and decision sciences at CMU. "While our findings may strike many as counterintuitive, our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature. Our study differs from most prior work in that it leverages a naturally occurring experiment in a real-world context."

For its part, State Farm is encouraging government agencies to continue their high profile campaign against distracted driving, which specifically targets electronic gadgets.

"State Farm continues to support a multi-pronged approach to encouraging more engaged driving," Mullen said. "Legislation, enforcement, education and technology all have a role to play in making our roads safer for all who share them."

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Source: Consumer Affairs (Huffman, 11/13)

NTSB faults parade plans in fatal train collision

WASHINGTON — An oncoming freight train sounded its warning, and track guard gates started to descend. But the crowd was cheering, a marching band was playing, the lights of a police escort were flashing and a truck driver towing a parade float of wounded veterans and their wives in Midland, Texas, advanced heedlessly into the crossing.

The train rammed the float at 62 mph, killing four veterans and injuring 11 other veterans and their wives.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday faulted parade organizers and city officials for their lack of safety planning, not the truck driver towing the float.

"This terrible collision between a fast-moving freight train and a slow-rolling parade float of veterans and their loved ones should never have occurred," said NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman at a board meeting to conclude a yearlong investigation of the accident. "Parade and event organizers must identify and manage hazards in advance to ensure a safe outcome for participants and spectators."

Citing other fatal accidents at parades and special events in Bangor, Maine; Edmond, Okla.; and Damascus, Va., the five-member board also made a series of safety recommendations to cities and counties regarding the need for permits and safety plans.

The parade had been an annual event in Midland, a transportation and commerce hub in the West Texas oilfields, for nine years. A local charity had invited the veterans for a three-day weekend of hunting and shopping in appreciation of their service, including a parade timed to fall near Veterans Day.

Led by three police vehicles and a marching band, two floats with veterans and their spouses were en route to a banquet in their honor on Nov. 15, 2012 when the collision occurred. One float had just cleared the highway grade crossing, and a second flatbed truck was edging across the tracks when it was struck by a Union Pacific train. Several veterans and their wives managed to jump from the float before the collision.

NTSB investigators described to the board how safety precautions for the annual parade had melted away over the years.

After the first few years that the parade was held the route was changed from one that didn't cross Union Pacific's tracks to a route that did cross the tracks. For several years after the route change, parade organizers would alert the railroad to their plans and police were stationed at the highway grade crossing. But even those precautions were dropped by last year.

In the early years of the parade, organizers also obtained parade permits from the city. But last year, no permit was obtained in violation of city regulations, investigators said. Even if a permit had been issued, city regulations didn't require parade organizers to submit a safety plan, they said.

"It seems things got lax in the planning," highway safety investigator Gary Van Etten told the board. "There was no (safety) plan."

Midland officials, responding to the board's findings, said in a statement that while they've already implemented significant changes in the city's process for handling special events, they said they also realize there is more work to be done.

"The review and upcoming one-year anniversary of the accident bring back many painful emotions and memories, and our hearts continue to go out to the families who relive the accident every single day," the city's statement said. "Our hope is that those who have followed our story are still listening so that these recommendations can also help them hold safe, successful events in the future."

The railroad crossing warning system was activated the required 20 seconds before the accident, and the guardrail began to come down seven seconds after that, but the truck's driver was unaware of the danger because circumstances of the parade had created an "expectation" of safety, investigators said.

Police were stationed at intersections along the parade route and the truck driver had been allowed to proceed for 34 minutes through a series of red lights before the accident, investigators said. By the time the driver arrived at the grade crossing, he had reason to assume he could proceed through a red light there as well, they said.

"I think he was led down the primrose path, he was invited across these railroad tracks," said NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt.

The truck driver didn't recognize the warning bells that sounded as the train approached because of noise from the crowd, the marching band and motorcycles in the parade, investigators said.

The driver told investigators that he did not see the flashing lights of the grade-crossing warning system or detect the presence of the train until the float was on the tracks because he was looking at his side-view mirror to make sure float passengers weren't being jostled as he negotiated a dip in the roadway on approach to the grade crossing.

The train's engineer sounded the locomotive's horn and pulled the emergency brake seconds before the collision, but was unable to stop in time. The first truck towing a float, which was in front of the truck that was struck, was fitted with a train horn that had been sounding throughout the parade, yet another reason why the driver of the truck that was struck didn't register the danger until it was too late, investigators said.

Show of Support, the group that organized last year's parade, is holding a banquet this year, not a parade, Midland spokeswoman Sara Higgins said.

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Source: Merced Sun Star (Lowy, 11/05)

Mother angry over handling of school playground accident

PASADENA, Texas -- A first grader from Fisher Elementary is nursing a broken wrist and her mom believes the school didn't do enough after it happened.

Herminia Castillo fell off the monkey bars.

"She landed really, really hard on the floor,' said Herminia's mom Rosalinda Garcia. "Not one of the teachers had gone to go and check on her or see if she was okay."

The school let Garcia look at surveillance video from the playground and she noticed it was actually other students who helped Herminia over to the adults.

"They weren't supervising her properly to attend to her on time," Garcia said.

We asked Pasadena ISD for the video but they won't release it at this point.

However, district officials tell us that another child was injured moments before and since Herminia's injury didn't appear that serious, they went in order.

The first grader was eventually taken inside.

"The teacher took me to the nurse and then the nurse put ice on it and water on it," Castillo said.

Garcia says she got the call about what happened an hour later.

When they were reunited, the 6-year-old was taken to the emergency room. Her fractured wrist means no PE or recess for a little while.

Since Herminia's mom thinks some retraining is in order, district officials have agreed to meet with her next week to talk about it.

No one from Pasadena ISD would talk on camera about the incident but they did send us this statement:

We regret that this first grade student got hurt playing on the playground during recess. Teachers on the playground and the campus R.N. responded quickly and appropriately to this child’s injury. The supervising teacher who responded to the injured student got to her within 35 seconds.

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Source: KHOU (Craig, 10/24)

Grandmother Drowns in Horrific Theme Park Accident, Family Sues

It was September 5, 2011, when the Forbes family attended Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Arlington, Texas, when tragedy struck. Allen-resident Linda Forbes had been enjoying the park with her family that day when she was pulled from the “Lazy River,” an attraction that is described on Hurricane Harbor’s website this way:

“Sometimes, it’s fun to be lazy. Kick back and float or tube along this easy-going river that gently cruises at a current of three miles per hour.” The “Lazy River” is depicted in an image as a large, linear pool in which patrons can float lazily on various floating devices such as tubes.

When Forbes, a 64-year-old grandmother, was pulled from the water, park employees came to her aid and began chest compressions, according to a summary in The Dallas Morning News (9/7/13). With the victim lying on her back, a mask was placed over her face in an effort to force oxygen into her lungs. The mask, however, proceeded to fill with water, presumably from the victim’s lungs. Forbes was finally rolled over onto her side only after a guest at the park, who was also a paramedic, instructed employees to do so, preventing water from re-entering the victim’s lungs.

According to the horrific theme park accident report, park employees also brought a defibrillator in an effort to revive the victim. However, the defibrillator failed to activate. The lawsuit notes that a locked exit, which was closest to the victim, may have prevented the victim from being transported to the hospital in a timely manner.

Forbes was pronounced dead as the result of the amusement park accident at Arlington Memorial Hospital later that evening.

Amusement Park Deaths are rare, but also real byproducts of the amusement park experience. Safety advocates place a great deal of emphasis on regular inspections and maintenance, as well as sound design principles to maximize the safety of patrons.

And Theme Park Accidents occur at both fixed installations, such as Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, and traveling installations that are a popular feature at state fairs.

In 1979, according to The Dallas Morning News (9/28/13), a gondola from the Swiss Skyride attraction dislocated and plummeted 80 feet to the ground, killing one bystander and injuring 15 other patrons attending the Texas State Fair that year. Four years later, a rider was killed and 16 other patrons were injured - two seriously - after a spinning car on the Enterprise ride dislocated from the ride and crashed into the midway.

Both Amusement Park Deaths resulted in multimillion-dollar lawsuits. However, the tragedies also fostered more stringent management and inspections of thrill rides at state fairs. While the Enterprise ride was inspected by a representative of the insurance company and deemed safe before it was opened to riders during the Texas State Fair of 1983, a more thorough inspection following the Horrific Theme Park Accident revealed fractures in the Enterprise’s steel frame that might have been detected had a more thorough inspection taken place prior to the ride opening to the public.

Jim Sinclair, deputy general manager of the Minnesota State Fair, told The Dallas Morning News that in Minnesota inspectors are on-site 24 hours a day for the entire run of the State Fair. Inspectors perform constant spot checks and review daily inspection reports. “The level of exposure that comes with a state fair operation like in Dallas or here [St. Paul, Minnesota] or Milwaukee is such that you want that layer of inspection,” he said in comments published in The Dallas Morning News.

“We have the risk.”

As for the amusement park death of Forbes, The Dallas Morning News says that her death was not reported to the Texas Department of Insurance because the Lazy River is not licensed as a ride per se - although the park’s water slides are. For an unlicensed ride, there is no requirement to report a death or injury, according to the report.

On the Hurricane Harbor website, the Lazy River is listed as a family ride. The amusement park lawsuit continues.

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Source: Lawyers and Settlements (Gibb, 10/19)

Train hits stalled 18-wheeler; Driver escapes unharmed

A driver was able to jump out of his 18-wheeler Wednesday morning before a train collided with the semi-tractor near County Road 1130 and Highway 80.

The driver was towing a flatbed trailer and got stuck on the tracks at railroad crossing 1130, said Drew Peters, Midland Fire Department battalion chief.

The train collided with the truck and dragged it at least half a mile west toward the intersection of Highway 80 and East Loop 250, Peters said.

The flatbed trailer wrapped around the front of the train engine during the collision. The crash created a debris field scattered across the tracks, Peters said.

The crash investigation is ongoing and it’s currently unknown if the driver will be cited.

Gene Powell, public information officer for the Texas Department of Transportation, said a crossing arm was damaged in the crash. Union Pacific has asked that the crossover be closed to traffic until the crossing arm is repaired, which should be completed by this week, Powell said.

The crash also caused a diesel spill of about 100 gallons, he said.

Department of Public Safety troopers, as well as Midland police and fire units, responded to the crash at about 9:14 a.m.


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source: Mywesttexas.com (White, 10/9)

Overdosing on pain reliever acetaminophen

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is one of the most popular pain relievers in the United States, but a new report by ProPublica finds acetaminophen may have caused the deaths of more than 1,500 people over 10 years.

The parents of a 12-year-old boy, Davy, told ProPublica that they took him to the hospital after treating him for a sore throat for a week with maximum strength Tylenol sore throat medicine. The hospital found that Davy had liver damage from the acetaminophen, and was declared brain dead a few days later.

"The key issue with acetaminophen is really what they call the narrow margin of error. It's the narrowest margin of error between the dose that can (help) you and the dose that can harm," said T. Christian Miller.

If users take the recommended daily dose, it's a pretty safe medicine.

"If you go over that and not too far, you can get in trouble," said Miller. When taken in larger than recommended doses, acetaminophen can damage or destroy the liver.

"What makes Tylenol unique is it's really a pretty safe medicine at the recommended doses, but if you go over two pills, four pills, six pills, eight pills over a number of days, depending on your condition, you can get into trouble with things like liver damage and even death," said Miller.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still struggling to identify the number of pills over the recommended dose that could be seriously detrimental to users.

"The number they put out right now is studies show that anywhere from about four pills over, to eight pills over of extra strength, taken over several days, can get you into trouble.," said Miller. "A one-time dosage of about four times (over the recommended dose) can also get you into trouble in terms of liver damage and fatality."

Another couple Miller and his ProPublica colleague spoke to were the parents of 5-month-old Brianna Hutto, who was given Tylenol.

"The doctor then comes in and says I figured it out. It's acetaminophen poisoning. She's been poisoned by Tylenol. Her liver is failing. Her enzymes are high," Brianna's mother told ProPublica.

"How did this happen? How did she get poison or whatever from medicine that's always given, that we were told to give?" said Brianna's father.

The unfortunate story of Brianna underscores the dangers of Children's Tylenol versus Infants' Tylenol. Counter intuitively, Infants' Tylenol has a higher concentration of acetaminophen.

"What happened is the major manufacturers of acetaminophen, like Tylenol and others, were selling two different concentrations of infants' and children's, and the infants' was three times more concentrated than the children's," said Miller.

"So if you mixed up the dosage, in other words, if you gave your infant baby Infants' Tylenol at a Children's Tylenol level, you could end up poisoning them completely accidentally. That happened a number of times over 15 years, and that's what happened with the Hutto's."

CNN's medical team points out that if taken in its recommended doses, users are safe to take Tylenol, and this is not just a Tylenol problem. Acetaminophen is in hundreds of other medications, and Tylenol has a new cap that warns users about the ingredient, and to use it safely.

Tylenol said in a statement to CNN:

"As the makers of tylenol®, we understand that consumers have a need to know about the medicines they take and we have a responsibility to help them make informed choices, including helping them to understand both the benefits and the risks. When taken as directed, acetaminophen (the active ingredient in tylenol®) has one of the most favorable safety profiles among over-the-counter pain relievers. However, when an overdose is taken, it can result in serious liver damage. Consumers should always read the label on the medicines they take, never take more than the recommended dose, and talk to their doctor if they have any questions or concerns. Visit us at http://www.getreliefresponsibly.com for more information."

For people at home with Tylenol, with Infants' Tylenol and Children's Tylenol,

"If you're a parent, the number one thing is to follow what the label says. And as of now, that label is: If you have a kid under 2, call your doctor for recommendations. So that's what parents should do right now, is follow the label as it's labeled, and be careful when administering doses to their kids," said Miller.


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Source: CNN (Tapper, 9/23)

Police say woman's death at Texas climbing gym a tragic accident

GRAPEVINE, Texas –– Police say the death of an experienced climber at a Grapevine climbing gym was an unfortunate accident.

According to Grapevine police, 52-year old Susan Mailloux likely forgot to clip herself into the safety rope system provided by the gym. If Mailloux’s Facebook page is any indication, she loved rock climbing. It is covered with pictures of her on the wall.

Yesterday, police say, she was climbing with her boyfriend and his son, at Summit Climbing. At the top, 25 to 30 feet up, police say Mailloux let go, as if she thought she was tied in. She was not.

“Once she got to the top of that road ladder she simply released as if she was attached to it and then she fell to the ground,” said Sgt. Robert Eberling with the Grapevine Police Department.

The gym requires climbers to sign a waiver warning against all types of possible injury or death, including “freakish accidents which cannot be forseen.” Police say Mailloux failed to clip into, what’s called an auto-belay, an automatic harness system that lowers a falling climber, slowly, to the ground.

Ben Mann is also a climber at Summit, he did not know Mailloux.

“All of the rock walls are lined with ropes and about every five to ten feet there’s a sign that says don’t forget to clip in, or make sure you’re clipped in,” Mann said.

The manager of the Budget Suites in Irving, confirmed Mailloux had lived here for several years Former neighbors say she also has a son in the Navy. The owner of Summit said Mailloux came in once every week or ten days to climb and police confirm had experience climbing.

The gym was closed today and will also be closed tomorrow, the owner says, out of respect for Mailloux and her family.

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Source: Kens5 (Schechter, 09/24)

Drunk driving in Plano: Does Plano PD's no-refusal policy work?

This is one of three stories chronicling the Plano Police Department's efforts to eliminate drunk driving.

In 2012, nearly 1,100 people were killed in car accidents on Texas roadways involving a driver under the influence of alcohol, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

To help decrease that number, police departments across the state often institute no-refusal policies during holiday periods. During such times, judges are on call to sign blood-draw warrants for drivers arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

The Plano Police Department is working to eliminate drinking and driving in the city by utilizing a no-refusal policy.

However, some departments, such as Plano PD, have gone a step further and made the no-refusal policy permanent. The decision to use no-refusal tactics year-round came in mid-2012, but the department began the expanded policy in 2009 by having judges on call every weekend.

Now that the policy is in full effect, is it working? To answer this question, the Plano Star Courier looked at police records dating from 2007 to now.

The statistics show a correlation between the increased enforcement and a decrease in DWI arrests, but are unclear how the policy affected alcohol-related traffic accidents.

Arrests

In 2008, the year before the increased enforcement went into effect on weekends, 1,252 people were arrested for DWI or DUI in Plano. That number decreased slightly in 2009 to 1,235 arrests but decreased an average of 11 percent each year from 2010 to 2012.

Officer David Tilley said he believes the no-refusal policy serves as a strong deterrent to people who may consider drinking and driving in Plano.

"This is something that is important to our department and to our officers because our job is to protect the public," Tilley said. "Sometimes, unfortunately, that means protecting people from themselves. We are going to have additional officers out there on weekends doing DWI enforcement, and we are going to be arresting you if you have been drinking."

Accidents

In 2008, 212 alcohol-related accidents occurred, a number that decreased each year through 2011, when 174 occurred. The number of accidents rose to 248 in 2012 but is projected to decrease to 200 this year.

With no changes made to the department's accident reporting policy, Tilley said it is the belief of the department that the 2012 figure was an outlier and that the department's policies are working.

"That number was very much a concern," he said. "We looked at it and said, 'What did we do wrong?' We really didn't feel we did anything wrong, but we knew we could improve, and that is when we started trying to get more information out to the public."

Warrants

As expected, the number of blood draw warrants issued in 2012, the first year the policy was in effect year-round, increased; 258 warrants were issued last year, up from only 35 the year before. Through the first six months of this year, 169 warrants were signed by judges.

While getting a warrant may seem more complicated than conducting the standard field sobriety and breathalyzer tests, that is not typically the case, said Officer Mica Lunt, one of the department's DWI trainers. Lunt said drivers who refuse all tests are often easier for officers to deal with than those who don't.

"In the case of a total refusal, the officer makes a decision based on the driving that has led them to come in contact with the offender, the observations they make of the driver when they get to the vehicle, and the fact the person has refused the tests," Lunt said. "... If the officer believes the person is intoxicated, they simply make an arrest, take them to jail and apply for a search warrant."

The no-refusal policy has also proven popular with officers for a number of reasons, Lunt said. Chief among them is that it provides more evidence for the district attorney, which results in more cases pleading out rather than going to trial.

"That is good for officers in a number of ways since most of the officers who make these arrests work nights, and court happens during the day. When a case like that goes to trial, officers are up for more than 24 hours straight all the time," Lunt said, adding that officers who work nights are paid overtime if they must attend court during the day.

Since 2008, 504 blood-draw warrants were signed for Plano officers. In those cases, blood-alcohol results were available in 479 of them. Data from Plano PD shows that in these 479 incidents, the arrested person had a blood-alcohol content under the legal limit of 0.08 in only 15, or 3 percent, of the cases. The person's blood showed no alcohol in four of the 15.

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Source: Plano Courier (Conrad, 08/29)

Construction workers in West Campus apartment complexes allege mistreatment, unpaid wages

Of the three West Campus apartment complexes that opened to more than 1,000 students this fall, at least two were built by construction workers who claimed they were mistreated.

Documents obtained from the City of Austin show complaints have been filed against the contractors who oversaw construction of 2400 Nueces and The Callaway House for lack of rest and water breaks for construction workers. Workers Defense Project, a nonprofit that strives to represent mistreated workers in Texas, has also taken legal action against owners of The Callaway House twice this year after learning of unpaid wages for construction workers who worked on the private off-campus dorm.

The City of Austin received a complaint, regarding breaks, against the construction project at the 2400 Nueces site. Construction workers who built the property have claimed they were not given rest or water breaks during day-long shifts of work. While Texas does not require breaks at the state level, a City of Austin ordinance requires a 10-minute rest break for every four hours on the job. A construction worker, who worked on 2400 Nueces and spoke to The Daily Texan on the condition of anonymity, said he was mistreated in several ways while working on the project.

Despite the conditions and not receiving overtime pay, the worker said he could not quit because he had to provide for his family and the work at 2400 Nueces was the only job he could get at the time.

Hensel Phelps, the general contractor for the project, did not return a request for comment, but city records show an inspector visited the site in response to the complaint filed in July 2012 and took pictures of rest stations, water coolers and the required city-issued signage about the policy. The land 2400 Nueces was built on is leased by UT to a private college student housing developer.

Around the same time the rest breaks complaint was filed, a construction worker at 2400 Nueces fell from the sixth floor injuring himself and the two other workers he fell on. They were all treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The worker interviewed by The Daily Texan — who was not one of the workers who fell — said he and other construction workers were not given any kind of health insurance or compensation while working on the site.

Greg Casar, a business liaison representative for Workers Defense Project, compared Texas’ construction industry to doping in sports.

“When it is so competitive, and there is really no enforcement or oversight, then it creates an incentive for everybody to cheat,” Casar said.

Texas is one of the nation’s most robust states for construction, with more than 950,000 construction workers in the state, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Accompanying this massive amount of construction work is limited state government oversight and regulation. Unlike California and other states with large construction industries, Texas does not require breaks for workers or compensation for on-the-job injuries. The state also has no task force in place to monitor workplace fraud.

The allegations made by workers in West Campus are consistent with statewide worker mistreatment issues discussed in a report by UT.

Earlier this year, UT faculty — in partnership with Workers Defense Project and faculty from the University of Illinois at Chicago — released Build a Better Texas, a report that examined the construction industry in Texas. The report found 39 percent of workers surveyed said they did not receive rest breaks. Another issue many construction workers face is misclassification as contractors, because of which workers are often not paid for overtime, forced to supply their own safety equipment and are not given insurance.

Workers Defense Project alleges this occurs at most private construction projects like 2400 Nueces.

“The idea is you are completely on your own,” Casar said. “It totally severs any level of responsibility anybody has to that worker.”

Worker misclassification, or workplace fraud, is illegal nationwide but the way individual states handle and investigate these instances varies greatly. About 41 percent of workers surveyed said they were victims of workplace fraud, according to Build a Better Texas.

Further complicating the situation is the distant relationship between general contractors and construction workers, who are often hired and supervised by subcontractors.

“It’s not the general contractors that are cheating,” Casar said. “They have a direct working relationship at the developer level, and aren’t overseeing the labor at any phase. If you just build a building, and don’t ask questions, that’s what you get.”

In July, Workers Defense Project filed a lien — a legal maneuver that prevents the owners from selling the property and could lead to further legal action — against American Campus Communities, the owner of The Callaway House, after construction workers who worked on the project claimed $36,800 in unpaid wages. Earlier this week, The Callaway House’s general contractor, Harvey-Cleary, promised to pay the unpaid wages following the lien.

This is the second time Workers Defense Project has successfully advocated for unpaid workers against the owners of The Callaway House. In April, workers won a claim of more than $24,000 in unpaid wages.

Gina Cowart, vice president of investor relations and corporate marketing at American Campus Communities, said the company had instructed Harvey-Cleary to pay the workers for the full amount of unpaid wages. American Campus Communities is “rigorous” in paying its contractors and service providers, Cowart said.

“We do not believe we have been accurately portrayed by Workers Defense Project communications,” Cowart said in a statement. “However, we do respect the role they played in bringing the matter to our attention to foster resolution.”

Almost a quarter of construction workers surveyed by Build a Better Texas reported they had previously been denied wages.

The documents obtained from the city also revealed a complaint filed in May against The Callaway House construction project for violating the ordinance that requires rest breaks on construction sites.

City records show an inspector visited the site after the complaint and found the required city-issued signage about the policy was posted at the site. The inspector also reminded the management of the ordinance.

Harvey-Cleary did not return a request for comment.

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Source: Daily Texan (Blanchard, 9/06)

Man who bought alcohol for a minor gets 90 days in jail

(BONHAM, TEXAS) -- A Texoma mother who lost her son in a drunk driving accident wants the adults who buy alcohol for minors to face harsher punishments after she says the man who bought alcohol for her son that day got off way too easy.

Thomas Calame Robinson and his friend Jesse Runyon were killed in December of last year when Robinson took the wheel after a night of drinking. The alcohol was purchased by 24-year-old Jeremy Horton who was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in jail.

Tamberly Robinson says her son was the love of her life.

All she has left of her 18-year-old son Thomas are pictures and memories.

Tamberly Robinson said that her son was "full of joy and happiness, he lived every day as if it were his last, he was a good kid, but like most kids he made a mistake and he paid dearly for his mistake and so did his friend."

On December 7th last year Thomas took the wheel with passenger 17-year-old Jesse Runyon after drinking alcohol that 24-year-old Jeramie Horton bought for the group of minors - two 30-packs of beer and a handle of vodka. Police say Thomas was driving at a high speed and lost control of the car, killing both of the boys. Tamberly said a text message confirmed Horton had supplied the boys with alcohol.

Tamberly Robinson " I saw it on his phone when I got it back from DPS that said here I go playing the hero again and now the hero got 90 days in jail and 2 boys are dead my son and his friend."

Robinson says the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

Tamberly Robinson said, "The laws aren't tough enough for the people that are buying alcohol for our children because our children are dying."

But Fannin County District Attorney Richard Glaser told Alexandra Carter this is the first time he's put someone in jail for providing alcohol to a minor.

Richard Glaser, " We insisted upon it in this case because of the serious consequences. We wanted to send a message to the young people in Fannin County that they need to stop and think before they either purchase it from friend or buy it from a friend because terrible things can happen."

Tamberly says she's writing lawmakers and starting a movement for harsher penalties for those who provide alcohol to minors.

Robinson, " and that's just a pain I wouldn't want anyone else to go through, but if and when it happens I would like them to have a greater sense of justice than what we got.

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Source: KXII (Carter, 8/23)

Swimming Pool Accidents

It’s that time of year when the 6 o’clock news leads far too often with the most tragic stories about childhood drowning deaths, near deaths, and injuries. Just this week, there was the news about the son of singer Usher nearly drowning in the family’s pool. The statistics are sobering.

According to the Centers for Disease Control: Every day, about ten people die from unintentional drowning. Of these, two are children aged 14 or younger. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States.

To help parents better understand the complexities of these cases, the Texas swimming pool accident lawyers offer these answers to five common swimming pool liability questions.

1. Who is liable for injuries in a swimming pool?

It depends on who gets injured, how they were hurt, and who owns the pool. In Usher’s case, had his son died or sustained permanent brain damage due to lack of oxygen, the pool manufacturer (and the drain manufacturer) might be liable if they knowingly built a drain without enough safeguards to protect children from getting stuck in it. Because these types of products liability cases are so difficult and are unique to each case, it really depends on what happens and why. If, on the other hand, a kid is running around the pool area irresponsibly, slips and falls and gets injured, then absent some argument that the pool surface area lacked proper friction, then the kid is likely out of luck. Additionally, if you drown in your own pool because you fall in as a result of a fainting spell, you’re also out of luck, since there is no causal link between the pool construction and your fainting.

2. What should a homeowner do to limit their liability for injuries in their pool?

The single biggest thing you can do is to provide reasonable care to secure the pool. In this case, reasonable care means complying with local laws and ordinances regarding security. This way, if a child sneaks into your backyard and into your screened back pool enclosure, then drowns in the pool, your liability will be limited or nonexistent if you can establish that you complied with all laws, got your pool inspected, etc. On the other hand, if you know that a child sneaks in, and more importantly know how they do it, you could be liable if you fail to take what the law says are reasonable steps to stop the child. For example, say you learn that a child learns the code to your backyard electronic access gate, you need to change the password. Alternatively, if the kid climbs or crawls through a hole in your screen to access your pool, then you need to get the hole fixed, otherwise you may be liable even if you follow other standard procedures, because the law will say you knew, or should have known, that the child could access your pool a number of different ways.

3. What if the injury was caused by the negligence of the swimmer?

Most likely you are off the hook. However, if you know the person swimming doesn’t know how to swim, and you leave them alone, you may be liable for their injuries because you had advance knowledge that they lacked meaningful swimming ability. On the other hand, a homeowners association can be liable for injuries to a swimmer if the swimmer was part of an organized activity occurring on association property. Here’s an example: One day I saw a van full of kids on summer camp pull into our community, head to the pool, and proceed to swim for a few hours. I was outraged because a homeowner gave the camp permission to swim in our pool as part of an organized activity. Our association wasn’t insured for injuries that occurred as a result of an organized activity, and I immediately had the association inform the homeowner not to allow this activity anymore because we weren’t insured for it. As a result, if a kid got injured during this organized activity, the association would have had to pay the injured family directly, resulting in a special assessment against every homeowner.

4. Are the laws different for public swimming pools?

Absolutely. Community pools are held to a different standard because they are designed for public use, and as such, they need to have different safety precautions in place to accommodate a large number of swimmers, as opposed to your backyard swimming pool that is used by just a few people.

5. What about if there’s a lifeguard or a “swim at your own risk” sign?

Merely posting a sign saying you are swimming at your own risk wouldn’t eliminate the risk to the pool/drain designer in Usher’s case, because the liability arises from the design of the drain, not from the swimming. But, in some cases, this kind of disclosure (a “swim at your own risk” sign) may relieve the pool owner of some liability.

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source: abc15.com (Fischer, 08/13)