A driver who ran a red light and hit and killed a Texan couple in a drunk driving crash in 2015 is finally sentenced—and the victims’ families are frustrated, reported WFAA.
More than three and a half years after the incident, Kevin Christmas was sentenced July 17 to four months in jail and five years’ probation.
The couple killed in the drunk driving crash in November 2015 were Lauren and Cedric Davis, both were 26 years old at the time. They planned to celebrate Cedric’s birthday at a Dallas Mavericks game when the accident happened, reported Fox 4 News.
A Dalla Police press release reported that on the night of November 13, a Nissan Maxima driven by intoxicated Kevin Christman, then 28, sped through a red light at the intersection of 1900 Moody Street and 2500 Harry Hines Boulevard. He T-boned an incoming Nissan Frontier. Christman’s car then ricocheted onto the sidewalk and hit Lauren and Cedric Davis, who was walking toward the arena.
The young couple was taken to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, where Cedric Davis died that night, and Lauren Davis died the next morning, according to Dallas News.
Christman was charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault with a vehicle. Texas’ criminal code states that intoxication manslaughter, a second-degree felony, is punishable by 2 to 20 years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine. Intoxication assault, although a less third-degree severe felony, carries the same punishment.
Kevin Christman, who pleaded guilty to two accounts of intoxication manslaughter, will serve only four months in jail and will be on probation for five years, reported WFAA.
Lauren Davis’s mother told the TV station that she didn’t believe the punishment fits the crime.
“The system did not work. It failed us,” said Tammy Benthall, Lauren’s mother.
Benthall said she would never get justice, but now hoped she could work to change state law to make it tougher on drunk drivers.
“We want to see laws changed so that other people are not sitting, grieving the loss of their daughter,” she said.
Every day, 29 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. Learn more here: https://t.co/MSQgXLCy12 pic.twitter.com/SD4za1QiNm
— CDC Injury Center (@CDCInjury) April 17, 2019
Texas Department of Transportation says on its website that about every 20 minutes in Texas, someone is hurt or killed in a crash involving alcohol. On a national level, 29 people in the United States die every day in accidents that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. That’s one death every 50 minutes, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $44 billion.
1 in 3 US crash deaths involved drunk driving—more than in most other high income countries. Read more. #VitalSigns https://t.co/fjVVAqJzLA
— CDC (@CDCgov) July 11, 2016
Texas Department of Transportation also warns drivers that that impairment begins with the first drink. One’s ability to handle alcohol is affected by many factors, including gender, body weight, the number of drinks one has consumed, and the amount of food one has eaten. Two or three beers in an hour can make some people legally intoxicated. Women, younger people, and smaller people are generally easier to become impaired with alcohol.
