The pain of losing their 23-year-old daughter who was killed by a drunk driver May 10, 2015, was too much for James and Marilyn Lane to handle.
The San Benito couple left Texas after their daughter Eleanor Bailey Lane Brown’s death trying to come to terms with how to cope with her death. They were gone for six years and later returned.
“Everything was a reminder of her life and her death,” Marilyn said.
Bailey had been in Austin when the vehicle she was riding in was struck head-on by a drunk driver, driving on the wrong side of the road. The driver of that vehicle had a blood alcohol content of. 30 which is over three times the legal limit, said Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez. Authorities also found two baggies of cocaine in the vehicle of the drunk driver.
“My husband and I could not sleep or eat. We lived in a fog for months. My husband was on leave for 60 days, he could not go to work. Every day was an effort for us, and even today it is still an effort waking up without Bailey by your side. It is excruciating,” Marilyn said.
The Lanes shared the family’s tragic story Monday at the seventh annual Labor Day DWI No Refusal Weekend press conference held in Cameron County by the Rio Grande Valley’s four district attorneys who make up the Rio Grande Valley District Attorney Coalition.
During the “No Refusal” campaign, anyone arrested and charged with DWI will be asked to submit to an Alcohol Breathalyzer test. If the person refuses, the arresting agency will immediately seek a warrant for a blood alcohol content blood draw.
“What they (The Lanes) have done is that they have reminded me and all these folks back here that its not just about numbers. That every number that we talk about as a statistic, every statistic is a daughter, is a son, is a father, is a mother, is an uncle, is somebody who is tragically taken way too early by a drunk driver,” Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said.
Statistics indicate that during this weekend, fatality rates have grown by 14% since 2019; Texas comes in 3rd as the most dangerous state to be on the road during this holiday weekend.
Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said the Lane’s story is something everyone has heard before about the families not wanting anyone else to suffer the pain they have brought on by a drunk driver.
“For that person who gets upset because an officer stops them and arrest them and legally charges them for a DWI, they don’t understand that they are doing their job and saving them or saving others on the roads. One life is too much. One precious life is too much for any family to endure… How do we stop individuals, innocent individuals from being killed because of a drunk driver?” Rodriguez said.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, one person in Texas dies every eight hours and thirty-one minutes in a DUI, alcohol related traffic crash. In 2021, 22.9% of total traffic fatalities in Texas were DUI-alcohol related.
A first DWI with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) of .15 can get a person up to six months in jail, suspension of their driver’s license from three months up to a year and fine up to $2,000; a second DWI up to one year in jail and the suspension of the driver’s license three months to two years and up to a $4,000 fine; and a third DWI two to 10 years in jail and the suspension of the drivers license six months to two years plus up to a $10,000 fine. An intoxication manslaughter charge can get a person two to 20 years in prison plus a fine up to $10,000.
Saenz said law enforcement authorities can only do so much and that it is up to the public to make the correct decisions and not get behind the wheel if they have had too much to drink.
“Do not get behind the wheel and drive because you are going to kill someone…that someone is somebody’s sister, somebody’s brother, somebody’s mother, somebody’s father that doesn’t deserve that, so please, please, this is the last hoorah for the summer. Go enjoy yourself and have a great time because there is nothing wrong with that, but there is a lot wrong with drinking and getting behind the wheel,” Saenz said.
