Laredo, TX — February 6, 2026, two children were injured in an alleged drunk driver truck accident at about 8 p.m. on Zapata Highway/U.S. Highway 183.

Authorities said a northbound semi-truck rear-ended several vehicles before the driver abandoned the vehicle near Soria Drive.

Two 9-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were seriously injured in the crash, according to authorities.

Police used a drone to find the truck driver, who was sitting in the brush about 20 yards from the crash site, authorities said. He was drinking a beer and showed signs of intoxication.

The driver has been charged with intoxication assault and causing an accident involving serious bodily injury, according to authorities.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Webb County crash at this time.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When I read about incidents like this one, what stands out to me isn’t just what happened, but what often goes unasked afterward. These are the kinds of cases where the public focus quickly narrows to the driver, even though the circumstances leading up to the crash may deserve just as much attention.

According to reports, alcohol appears to have played a role here. When that’s the case, one of the most important but overlooked questions is where the driver was drinking beforehand. Texas law recognizes that responsibility doesn’t always stop with the person behind the wheel. If an alcohol provider continued serving someone who was showing clear signs of intoxication, that decision can matter, and the law allows it to be examined. That’s the kind of question dram shop law is built to answer.

It may surprise people to learn that in many impaired driving investigations, there is little to no follow-up into where the alcohol came from or whether someone should have cut the driver off. That gap can leave injured parties without a full understanding of how this situation unfolded, and it can allow preventable patterns to continue unchecked.

Coming back to what stood out to me at the start, these cases are often about more than a single bad decision on the road. They’re about the choices made earlier in the evening, out of public view, and whether those choices contributed to what followed. It’s not always obvious, but there may be more to this story than people realize.

Key Takeaways:

• Texas dram shop law exists because impaired driving rarely happens in a vacuum.
• A full investigation should include not just the driver, but any alcohol provider who may have overserved.
• The law offers tools that many people don’t know they can use to uncover the complete picture.