Driver Sues Bar After Drinking for 8 Hours, Crashing Car
Texas Dram Shop laws allow for drinking establishments to be held liable for injuries that result from being drunk

Newser
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, Newser Staff
June 28, 2016

(NEWSER) – A Texas man who went on an eight-hour drinking binge and then drove his car into a concrete wall is suing the watering hole in a Dallas suburb that served him because, as his lawyer puts it, “You don’t let a customer do that.” Gordon Savage is suing W.W. Fairfield’s for negligence and seeking $1 million in damages after drinking from 6pm to after 2am last December, his attorney tells the Dallas Morning News.

Savage says that he attempted to drive home drunk but didn’t make it after he crashed into a concrete dividing wall at 3:10am. He was treated for severe injuries at a nearby hospital but police never charged him with driving under the influence. Fortunately, he didn’t injure anyone else in the crash, reports the Houston Chronicle, which in 2012 analyzed the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission’s Dram Shop laws that allow for drinking establishments to be held liable in the event of injury that results from drinking to excess. It found that criminal prosecutions against such establishments are brought only rarely. In this case, a jury will decide what proportion of responsibility belongs to the bar. (This Texas man acquired nine DWIs before being sentenced to life in prison.)