In Houston, a baby is on life support in a hospital because a car crashed into her family’s home. In San Antonio, a woman is hospitalized with serious injuries after a car crashed into her while she drove to church. In Dallas, four people are in a hospital after a three-car accident on North Central Expressway.

What do all these tragedies over the weekend have in common? They all involve suspected drunk drivers who lost control of their vehicle. But when the DUI suspect truly lost control was upon making a conscious decision to drink and then drive.

Each year, such choices cost America billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Yet drunk driving persists — often by those already arrested. In fact, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) estimates that up to three-fourths of drunk drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive anyway.

What will it take to stop — or at least drastically curtail — this ongoing national epidemic? Tougher laws would help, such as requiring all DUI offenders to have an ignition interlock device on their car, which would prevent them from starting the engine if they were drunk.

Getting tough with drunk drivers also can arise in the legal system, via a drunk driving lawyer or traffic accident lawyer. He or she can press a drunk driving lawsuit seeking monetary damages for victims’ medical costs, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Though drunk driving fatalities have declined from a high of 30,000 deaths in 1980 to 11,773 in 2008, all of those deaths remain an unacceptable price to pay for drunk drivers’ willful negligence. Jim S. Adler & Associates fights such negligence with DUI lawsuits and other legal means. And we all can fight it by monitoring the driving habits of friends and loved ones, and by trying to keep a drunk person from becoming a dangerous drunk driver.

If more had been done last year, perhaps five Houston children still would be alive. Instead, Chanton Jenkins reportedly was driving drunk — and using his cell phone — when he lost control of his car, which plunged into a rain-swollen ditch, where five of his young passengers drowned.

Jenkins just pleaded guilty to five counts of intoxication manslaughter before his trial began. He now faces the chance of serving the rest of his life in prison.

Were those drinks worth it? How could they be, when the price was so high? Yet drunk driving continues to rob Americans of life, physical well being and financial resources.

Jim S. Adler & Associates supports MADD and its efforts to stop drunk driving. The longtime Texas personal injury law firm also stands with Texans who have been harmed by drunk drivers. But no one can win this fight alone. We all must stand together.

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