America is at war — not with another country, but with its own drunk drivers. You may not sense that your country is at war with them, but drunk drivers — by default if not design — are definitely at war with America, inflicting far more deaths, injuries and damages that many military conflicts.

Each year, the car carnage caused by drunk driving totals around 16,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands of injuries and many billions of dollars in damages.

For far too long, enough has been enough. Yet the plague continues. Each day, law-abiding people die in horrific accidents, and all because drunks were loose on our roads and highways. Despite decades of effort and outstanding crusaders such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the terrible toll persists.

Clearly, tougher measures must be taken to tackle this ongoing crisis. That’s why Texas passed a new law to give police greater leeway in quickly pinning down these careless killers of guiltless Americans.

Starting Sept. 1, Texas police officers investigating a supposed drunk driving accident can get a blood or breath test of the driver on the spot. And unlike the current system, they’ll be allowed to get a blood sample without waiting for a warrant, notably when the driver has had two prior drunk driving stops on his or her record, or when a child is in the vehicle at the time of the latest accident.

Not only will this new law enable officers to pinpoint DUI or DWI evidence against guilty drivers immediately, but it will help them get their job done faster so they can proceed to the next case. It also sends a strong message that drunk driving — at least in Texas — will not be tolerated.

Too many Americans have suffered too much to allow the scourge of drunk driving to persist unchecked. If you or a loved one has been harmed in such a way, contact a drunk driving lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates for help. Zero-tolerance is not just a stance of some laws and law enforcers, but also of personal injury lawyers who will hold drunk drivers accountable in the legal arena.

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