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HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — As 2023 rolls round, Daybreak Gonzalez did not get to have a good time the event along with her finest associates like she deliberate.
“I am nonetheless in shock, I have not had time to grieve but,” mentioned Gonzalez. Gonzalez just lately sat down with ABC13 and talked in regards to the tragic loss of life of her finest pal, Ann Barrett, and her husband, Cedric.
New 12 months’s Eve and some other vacation was merely totally different from Sunday, March 27. That day, Gonzalez, the Barretts and a number of other different shut associates had simply eaten dinner at a steakhouse and had been crossing the road when a automobile sped previous Westheimer. Close to Greenridge.
SEE ALSO. A brand new report says Harris County has the tenth highest visitors fatalities within the nation
The Barretts had been hit, and Gonzalez, who was only some paces behind them, noticed all of it.
“I noticed it and I used to be in shock and I could not get to my pal as a result of there was nonetheless visitors. And a few folks took footage of him and posted them on social media,” he mentioned.
The accused driver, Donovan Donte Harris, is now charged with two counts of intoxicated manslaughter.
Sean Teare, chief of the Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace’s Transportation Crimes Unit, mentioned he needs he did not need to file so lots of these expenses.
“We lead the nation in drunk driving deaths, so yearly the deaths on our roads are immediately associated to alcohol and or medication,” Thiere mentioned. “That is the quantity we’re main the nation in.”
Thiere says the explanation for the unenviable standing is sophisticated. He says the sprawling interstate system, our willingness to drive lengthy distances for our every day actions and lack of public transportation contribute to a state of affairs that makes our roads the deadliest within the nation.
SEE ALSO. 2021 was the 2nd deadliest yr ever on Texas highways, with greater than 4,480 deaths, TxDOT says.
“Beginning the Wednesday earlier than Thanksgiving and persevering with by way of Jan. 2, that is the place we see our highest variety of DWIs and considered one of our highest charges of drunken homicides.
In December 2022, Danielle Canada was convicted of drunken driving, killing 28-year-old Porsha Department and her three younger kids. The 37-year-old was touring not less than 100 miles per hour when he crashed into Department’s automobile in March 2021. He was sentenced to 4 life sentences.
The newest knowledge exhibits that in 2022, the district legal professional’s workplace charged 11,605 DWI circumstances, 56 intoxication assault circumstances and 41 intoxication manslaughter circumstances.
Nonetheless, the district legal professional’s workplace statistics do not paint the complete image. It’s because when a drunk particular person is driving alone, for instance, and that particular person spins out or hits a tree and dies, nobody will be blamed for the crime. Nonetheless, that tragic loss of life nonetheless occurs.
“What I’d inform folks is that it solely takes one second and one unhealthy resolution to spoil another person’s life,” Gonzalez mentioned.
He thinks about his associates as he drives by way of the stretch of Westheimer between Fountainview and Voss.
Gonzalez plans to place up a cross in reminiscence of his fallen associates. However his hopes of sharing his grief will likely be one thing others will contemplate earlier than getting behind the wheel.
And perhaps in 2023, Harris County roads will now not be the deadliest within the nation.
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