Three people are dead after a two-car crash on Wednesday in East El Paso. Police arrested a 24-year-old, who is believed to be a rising El Paso boxer, on suspicion of intoxicated manslaughter.
According to officials, Joel Garcia Jr. was driving a 2010 Camaro on the 1600 block of Joe Battle Boulevard and allegedly drove through a red light and hit another car.
Garcia’s vehicle T-boned a 2004 white Pontiac Grand Am at about 1:45 a.m. Police said that two men and a woman in the Grand Am died and one of the man, who was in the back seat, was thrown from the vehicle.
According to the Foundation for Advanced Alcohol Responsibility, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 31% of the total vehicle traffic fatalities in 2013. Between 1991 and 2013, the rate of drunk driving fatalities per 100,000 population has decreased 49% nationally.