By BJ Austin
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-751491.mp3
Dallas, TX – Doctors and police in Fort Worth have a message for those hitting the highways for a last summer road trip: Don't drink and drive this Labor Day weekend. They say the price is too high.
Traffic fatalities on Texas roads decreased slightly last year, but more than 3,000 people died in crashes -nearly half of them in drunk driving crashes, according to state figures. At John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Dr. Raj Gandhi, Trauma Services Director at JPS, believes people should stand in his shoes in the ER. He recalls a program in which teenagers, arrested for DWI, spent time with him on the job.
Gandhi: They stood with us in the trauma bays when we got all these traumas on Friday nights and Saturday nights. They were appalled at what these patients looked like. They had no realization that anything could be this bad from what they did.
Police across North Texas promise to be out in force this holiday weekend looking to arrest suspected drunk drivers and get them off the roads.