Police and firefighters are often killed or injured when working incidents in streets. Being hit by a car driven by someone intoxicated is even more senseless. One state representative wants to make penalties stiffer for motorist who kill/injure fire and police personnel while driving intoxicated.

Please voice your support of Texas HB 1212
You can find out how to contact your state representative here:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/welcome.php
The full text of the bill is here: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/doc/HB01212I.doc

Drivers who hurt officers targeted
By JOHN MORITZ
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN - Drunken drivers who injure or kill an on-duty public safety officer would face longer prison sentences under legislation filed Monday by freshman Rep. Paula Pierson of Arlington and dedicated to the memories of two Tarrant County police officers killed by alcohol-related crashes. Pierson said her first bill is named for Darren Medlin, a Grapevine police officer killed in June 2004 when he was struck by a car during a traffic stop on Texas 121, and Dwayne Freeto, a Fort Worth patrol officer who died Dec. 17 while assisting a motorist with a flat tire on Interstate 35W. Both men were 34, military veterans and the fathers of young children.

Pierson's House Bill 1212 would take intoxication assault from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony if a police officer or firefighter were injured. The prison sentence, now two to 10 years, would increase to two to 20 years. The maximum fine, $10,000, would not change.
Intoxication manslaughter involving a police officer or firefighter would go from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony, which carries a prison sentence of five to 99 years and a maximum fine of $10,000.

"If you make the roads safer for police and firefighters, you make the roads safer for everyone," he said.