One Injured in Car Accident on Guadalupe Street in Austin, TX
Austin, TX -- April 4, 2022, a 22-year-old man was seriously injured in a collision with an alleged DWI driver on Guadalupe Street in Austin.
Authorities say the incident happened around 12:55 a.m. on Guadalupe Street near West 34th Street. Preliminary investigation suggests 28-year-old Cristobal Quintero was driving a Mazda CX-5 south on the roadway when he allegedly failed to control his speed and rear-ended a GMC Acadia.
The Acadia's rear passenger suffered serious injuries in the collision. Its driver was unhurt. Quintero and a passenger in the Mazda received possible injuries.
Police suspected Quintero of being intoxicated at the time of the crash and drew blood samples for testing.
No further information is available at this time.
Commentary on Car Accident on Guadalupe Street in Austin
Police suspect alcohol was a factor in this crash. If blood tests prove them right then the suspect may face some legal consequences for his choices that night. However, it's not my place to speculate about those and he'll have a day in court to settle up with the state.
Instead of talking about that, I want to address a different part of alcohol-related crashes that could prove more helpful to the injured victim. When determining who's responsible for a DWI wreck, Texas law looks beyond the drivers to where and how they drank. Depending on what they learn about that in Austin a local business may have violated Texas dram shop law, which would have its own unique consequences.
In a nutshell, dram shop law prohibits licensed alcohol vendors (bars, clubs, restaurants, liquor and convenience stores, etc) from selling or serving alcohol to obviously intoxicated customers. That reckless over-service endangers their customers and the general public, often leading to wrecks like the one in Austin. Dram shop law punishes law-breaking businesses for ignoring their obligations to public safety. In addition, it grants DWI crash victims the right to confront negligent bars in court and hold them responsible for the role they played.
Right now it's not even a certainty that alcohol was involved in this crash, so even though I'm explaining a few things about dram shop law I'm not claiming to know for sure they apply here. I only know from years of experience that it could have helped many people who never knew about it at all, so I talk about it after crashes where it might turn out to be a concern. If a local business violated its legal duties and someone suffered as a result, that business should be held properly accountable and make whatever amends it can.
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