NEW legislation will see that people convicted of intoxication manslaughter pay for their crime.
The bill that Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed this week forces drivers in the state who are guilty of killing parents to pay child support.
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The law created to help the children of those killed by drunk drivers will go into effect on the first of September.
The act is named Bentley's law, after a drunken driving victim's surviving son.
Based on the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, 345 alcohol-related crashes resulted in 20 fatalities in Texas during the 2022 Labor Day holiday weekend.
There were also 62 serious injuries caused by DUI-related car accidents on that day, local news outlet KTAL confirmed.
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For the rest of the year an individual was killed in the state because of alcohol-related traffic crashes once every seven hours and 17 minutes.
DUI-related car accidents took the lives of 1203 people in Texas in 2022.
A crackdown period is in place to cut down on drunk drivers as the new law will take effect in early September requiring anyone convicted of intoxication manslaughter to pay child support if they kill a child's parent.
Texas police have already increased stops of motorists they suspect are driving drunk beginning August 18 through the law’s September enactment date.
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"I just wanted my father to walk me down the aisle or my mom to be there when I had babies," Erin Crawford Bowers, who was six months old when her parents were killed by a drunk driver, said.
That’s why Texas is asking all Texans to pay attention to their Drive Sober, No Regrets campaign.
The movement is in hopes to #EndTheStreakTX.
The last deathless day on Texas roadways was Nov. 7, 2000
