El Paso traffic deaths are on the rise in 2011

EL PASO – The young woman was found lifeless, inside her Pontiac Solstice, submerged in the Franklin canal under 10 feet of icy, cold water. According to police, Corina Bejarano, 21, was driving at high speed on Saturday October 23, 2010 at approximately 1:30 a.m. with her headlights off, when she missed a curb, drove off the Cesar Chavez Highway and flew over two embankments of railroad tracks into the canal. She remained under water for more than four hours before police pulled her out. Bejarano’s death is just one of thousands of fatalities that happen every year in Texas. According to the Texas Peace Officers Crash Report (click here to download the report), 2,793 traffic accident deaths were reported in Texas in 2009.

Critics cite new driving test expensive and ineffective

Texas new driving course

EL PASO, Texas — According to the Texas Department of Transportation almost 20 percent of automobile accidents are caused by adult drivers, ages 18-24. Since March, 2010, a new Texas driver’s license law has been in effect. For the first time driver license applicants from the ages 18 to 24 must now receive a certificate which states they have successfully completed and passed the six-hour adult driving course by the Texas Education Agency, before they can take the standard driving test to receive their driver’s license. This course, which costs $100, can be taken online or in person, but it has provoked speculation whether it is really necessary and whether it will be effective. This new law, Senate Bill 1371 passed by the 81st Texas Legislature last year, incorporates two series of tests, one which is highway signs and traffic laws.