Unlicensed, Uninsured, Undocumented: Killing Americans

Teen's death highlights problem of hit-and-runs near the border
Many say fear of punishment for drunken driving, no insurance leads people to drive off

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

EDINBURG - Two young sisters dressed in Halloween costumes were walking home from a ''House of Horrors" fundraiser at their high school when a horror of a different kind struck.

A speeding pickup slammed into Veronica and Rocio Martinez as they crossed a busy, unlit street shortly before 11 p.m. The sisters were literally knocked out of their shoes and landed 50 feet away. One was killed, the other badly injured. The alleged culprit: A suspected drunken driver who fled the scene.

The Oct. 29 accident outraged and saddened residents of Edinburg, a town of about 50,000, and drew renewed attention to the long-standing problem of hit-and-run accidents along the Texas-Mexico border.

High rates of drunken driving and the prevalence of large numbers of uninsured and unlicensed drivers make South Texas a trouble spot for hit-and-run accidents, police say. Nearby Mexico is a refuge for fleeing offenders and a watering hole for underage drinkers who return to Texas and drive on border streets.

Hit-and-runs are ''a huge problem here for a number of reasons," said Ana Verley, head of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in the Rio Grande Valley. "Obviously we have the border, and it's easy to go across and drink in Mexico where they don't enforce a drinking age."

Many border drivers flee accident scenes, she added, ''because they're drunk and don't want to get busted."

No one knows for sure just how many hit-and-run accidents occur in Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety does not require local police departments to report hit-and-runs on the state's standard traffic accident form, DPS officials in Austin said. A revised form that will go into use next year will allow those accidents to be scanned into a computer data base.

What is known is that 1,771 people died in Texas last year in alcohol-related motor accidents, the nation's highest number, surpassing California, New York and Florida.

At least two South Texas border counties — Hidalgo and Cameron — were among the top 10 Texas counties in fatal alcohol-retated motor accidents.

Veronica Martinez, the 15-year-old victim killed in the Edinburg accident, was a sophomore at Edinburg High School. Her older sister, Rocio Martinez, 18, a junior at the same school, remains in critical condition with a broken pelvis, fractured ribs, and severe breaks of the left leg and right foot, her family said. She is in intensive care and has undergone two surgeries so far.

Do you hear this Mr. President? Do you see this Congress? Your inaction on this makes you complicit in murder. The time is NOW for you to close down the borders and eject ALL of the illegal aliens. This is not acceptable, your murdering American citizen for votes. There is NO legitimate reason for you not to pass laws immediately to end illegal immigration and kick illegals out. We can worry about "temporary workers" after we regain control of our country.

Full Story: Murder by Hit-and Run

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