Authorities ramp up efforts to keep drunk drivers off the roads

Texas authorities ramp up efforts to curb drunk driving

The Texas Department of Transportation has released another campaign in an effort to keep Texans from drinking and getting behind the wheel.

AUSTIN, Texas - If you're drinking on New Year's weekend, make sure you're not getting behind the wheel. Authorities are ramping up efforts to keep drunk drivers off the roads.

The Texas Department of Transportation says 23 percent of crashes in the state last holiday season involved drunk driving. Those crashes killed 98 people and injured 236.

Erin Crawford-Bowers lost both of her parents in 1985 when she was six months old after their car was hit by a drunk driver. Her mother threw herself in front of Erin's car seat, saving her.

"She literally sacrificed her own life so that I could live," Crawford-Bowers said.

She says that's the reason she continues to advocate against drunk driving.

TxDOT launches "Faces of Drunk Driving" campaign

The campaign seeks to remind Texans of the real people whose lives are destroyed by impaired drivers, including Erin Crawford-Bowers of New Braunfels, who grew up without her parents because of a drunk driver in 1985.

TxDOT is promoting their "Drive Sober, No Regrets" campaign. If you do drink, use a designated driver, rideshare, or public transportation, so someone doesn't lose their loved ones.

"The day I got married and just wanted my father to walk me down the aisle, that didn't happen. Or the day I had my babies, and you just want your mom by your side, and I didn't get that in life," Crawford-Bowers said.

One driver, Richie Griffin, talks about the consequences of driving under the influence, including ten days in jail for him.

"Next thing you know, I lost control of the car, and I crashed into a house. From there you've got the backlash because it was on the news, and before I could get back home, my phone's blowing up, people's parents, other people, like, 'how could you, so irresponsible,' and you go from thinking, 'I'm this good guy, and everything's working out for me,' to all of a sudden, 'I'm a felon,' it's a $30,000 mistake and something I still think about and have to deal with every day," he said.

The message is, it's not worth ruining someone's life or your own.

"Think of me. Think of what it's caused to my family, and ask yourself, how are you going to live with yourself knowing that you killed a girl's mother and her father?" Crawford-Bowers said.