Response to your recent piece on TxDOT’s “Drive Sober. No Regrets” campaign

Dear Editor,

I appreciated your recent article, “TxDOT: End Summer with Friends, Not Cellmates.” As your coverage rightly noted, DWI offenses continue to pose serious risks to public safety and place significant demands on our legal system.

I thought your readers might also be interested to know that to help ensure that Texas judges are well-prepared to handle these complex cases, TxDOT provides funding to support specialized judicial education. Through this funding, county court at law and district judges across the state have access to expert-led training on the legal, scientific, and procedural aspects of impaired driving cases.

These traffic safety grant programs—administered through the Texas Center for the Judiciary and other state-supported training entities—cover critical topics such as standardized field sobriety testing, blood draw protocols, ignition interlock laws, and sentencing alternatives. They help ensure consistent, informed judicial decision-making while also upholding the rights of defendants and the safety of the public.

Judicial education is a key part of Texas’s broader effort to reduce impaired driving and improve outcomes in our courts. Thank you for continuing to shine a light on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Holly Doran

TxDOT Program Director

Texas Center for the Judiciary