Controversial Checkpoints
EL PASO, Texas — Trying to get away with drunk driving in the Lone Star State may soon get a lot tougher.
The Texas Senate just passed legislation that would allow police to set up sobriety checkpoints.
Texas has more alcohol-related traffic deaths than any other state, but it remains one of 11 in the country that don’t allow police to set up drunk-driving checkpoints.
Some here in El Paso call it a controversial issue…the battle between safety and personal freedom.
“The fact is, people are dying,” said Virginia Gonzalez, the executive director of the West Texas Affiliate of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “We have to just stop the carnage on the roads and really say enough is enough.”
She said her organization supports this legislation 100 percentand that’s because she believes drunk driving in 100 percentpreventable.
“We live in the age of the scarlet letter, with the Internet and the information that is so readily available, once a person’s got a DWI, they’re scarred,” said El Paso attorney Mark T. Davis.
Davis handles a number of drunk driving cases and he says he worries that legislation like this will target the wrong people.
“People who are good drivers, never had an accident. People who’ve been going out once or twice a week for 30 years,” he said.
The social drinker…not the hardcore alcoholic.
“I think that this goes completely against the grain of El Paso and what we are…a live and let live city,” he said.
He also believes that legislation like this is not what our country stands for.
“It stands for freedom, number one, not personal safety, not to be afraid and cowering and protecting ourselves from every harm,” he said.
“We’re not saying don’t consume alcohol, don’t have a good time…it’s not meant to hurt anybody,” said Gonzalez. “It’s meant to be a safety precaution and it’s meant to save lives.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sobriety checkpoints are constitutional; in fact, they’re already allowed in New Mexico.
This bill will now move to the Texas House for approval.
