We talk about it almost every day on the news: The skyrocketing number of drunk driving cases in Abilene.Five years ago, the number of drink driving arrests was 345. Last year, DWI's shot up to 585.
In 2009, we're on pace to hit 600.
On a Saturday night, with an Abilene Police Officers we hit the roads to see just how easy it is for them to find drunk drivers in Abilene. They weren't that hard to find.
Officer Jacob Weise from the Abilene Police Department says that speed is a good indicator of a drunk driver.
"It's actually an excellent way to identify drunk drivers by excessively high speeds, so that's the first place we are going to look," says Officer Weise.
He adds, "basically the number of impaired drivers that are on the road at one time is relatively high and that's all been studied through statewide statistics."
Officer Weise says that in an average 4-day work week, he could pull over 3 to 5 DWI offenders.
Calculating, that's a whopping 144 to 240 arrests made by one police officer in a year.
Andreux Betancourt was pulled over for driving over the speed limit. He was given a field sobriety test and he failed.
This B1 Crew Chief, now has a long and expensive road ahead.
Betancourt will have his license suspended, with a possible minimum of $1,000 in fees per year for several years.
Betancourt's license suspension is not all he has to worry about because then comes court costs, most trials run a suspect about $5,000.
The total bill for a night of drinking then getting behind the wheel is about at least $8,000.
Despite the cost, Betancourt is getting off easy because he doesn't have to live a life of regret.
