Killer drunk drivers in Texas will now be forced to pay child support to victims orphaned by their reckless actions under a new law inspired by a grandmother who lost two generations of her family in a horrific fireball crash.
Bentley’s Law is designed to hold DUI convicts who commit the ‘especially heinous’ crime of killing parents or guardians responsible for paying the benefit until the child turns 18 or finishes high school.
The amount charged depends on the ‘standard of living to which the child is accustomed’, their ‘physical and emotional condition’ and their ‘educational needs’, according to the legislation.
The legislation was passed in Tennessee in May last year and it is now written into Texan law too after the state Governor Greg Abbott signed Bill 393 earlier this year.
Tennessee grandmother Cecilia Williams, who created the law, lost her son Cordell, 30, daughter-in-law Lacy, 25, and infant grandson, Cordell II, in a Missouri collision caused by drunk driver David Thurby in April 2021.
Tennessee grandmother Cecilia Williams, who created the law, lost her son Cordell, 30, daughter-in-law Lacy, 25, and infant grandson, Cordell II, in a Missouri collision caused by drunk driver David Thurby (pictured) in April 2021
Cecilia Williams (pictured) campaigned for Bentley’s Law to make drink drivers financially responsible if they kill a parent in a car crash. The legislation is now being passed in Texas after previously being signed into Tennessee law last year
Her son Cordell, 30, (left), his fiancée Lacey Newton, 25, (right) and their four-month-old son, Cordell II were killed by a drink driver
She was left to look after their two sons who survived the crash – Bentley, seven, and Mason, five.
The blood alcohol level of Thurby, from Fenton, Montana, was allegedly double the legal limit when he rear-ended the Williams’ car, which went off the road and struck a tree before catching fire.
Although the law will not benefit her and her grandsons personally, Williams said she campaigned for its introduction to ‘help other people.’
The full name of the law is Ethan, Haile and Bentley’s Law, because it is also named after the two children of Nicholas Galinger, a Tennessee police officer killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run.
The rookie cop was killed aged 38 after he was struck by drunk driver Janet Elaine Hinds, 54, in Chattanooga, Tennessee in February 2019.
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Galinger, who graduated from the police academy just a month before, had gotten out of his patrol vehicle to inspect a manhole cover amid rainy conditions when Hinds’ Honda CRV hit and fatally wounded him.
In February 2022 Hinds was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for the hit and run.
Now, Texas has followed in the footsteps of Tennessee lawmakers with Bill 393.
Cordell II (pictured) was just four months old when he was killed in a car crash by a drink driver
Bentley, five, and Mason, three, visiting the site of their parents’ and sibling’s accident
Their parents’ car was forced off the road by a drink driver before it struck a tree and caught fire
The bill was filed on November 14 last year and was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott this year.
‘Any time a parent passes is tragic, but a death at the hands of a drunk driver is especially heinous,’ Abbott said.
‘I was proud to sign HB 393 into law this year to require offenders to pay child support for the children of their victims.’
Fatalities killed in drunk driving crashes are disturbingly common in Texas, figures show.
Some 1,162 people were killed in DUI crashes in the Lone Star State last year – a 2% increase from the year before, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
That’s equivalent to three people dying every day of the year.
