Raising Awareness

Faces of Drunk Driving campaign urges Texans to be smart and stay sober

TxDot unveils Faces of Drunk Driving campaign at Long Center

Photo by Quita Culpepper KVUE News

KVUE -- Imagine getting a call that a drunk driver had hit your spouse or your child. It happens in Texas every 20 minutes.

It's the reason the state is kicking off a new safety campaign urging drivers to be smart and stay sober.

A Texas couple lost their son two years ago Tuesday, but they're pushing through the loss, hoping to spare others the same pain they live with every day.

Dennis Pennywell and his wife Kay adopted their son Aaron when he was 18 days old.

“Aaron was a prankster, a jokester. He loved people. He loved making friends,” Dennis Pennywell said. “He was also a kind and a sweet kid.”

On June 25, 2011 a drunk driver smashed into Aaron's car, hitting it broadside. The crash killed the 20-year-old instantly.

“The pain of losing a loved one is terrible, but the pain of losing a loved one to something like this is indescribable,” Pennywell said. “We've been forced to live with his absence every day. We go to his room, and we remember he'll never be there again.”

The Pennywells are among many families of DWI victims lending their voices to a new safety campaign by the Texas Department of Transportation.

It's called Faces of Drunk Driving and was unveiled at the Long Center with a waving backdrop of Texas flags. Each of the flags planted on the lawn represents a life lost to a drunk driver. Last year in Texas 1,170 people were killed in drunk driving crashes.

State officials say more than 9,400 people in Texas last year suffered serious injuries in alcohol related accidents.

“There were more than 25,000 alcohol-related traffic crashes in Texas in calender year 2012 alone,” said John Barton with TxDOT. “That equates to a five percent increase from 2011.”

Throughout July, TxDOT will host Faces of Drunk Driving events across the state. Law enforcement across Texas will conduct a no-refusal initiative through the July 4th holiday weekend. Suspected drunk drivers will be required by law to give a breath or blood sample.

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Read the full story on kvue.com.

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Where Credit is Due

H-E-B finally starts rolling out tap-to-pay services

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

No wallet, no consequences.

Texas' favorite grocery store has some good news for shoppers who have a habit of forgetting their wallets. H-E-B is starting a phased rollout for digital tap-to-pay services in all stores across Texas — but Austin shoppers may have to wait for it to arrive in their favorite stores.

The rollout started Monday, October 7, in San Antonio. A release says it'll take "about a week" to spread through that initial region, and a month to complete the rollout across all stores. It did not define when other regions or specific stores would join the program. The service will allow shoppers to pay with smartphone apps like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, instead of their physical cards.

It sounds like flagship stores are coming first, but all stores will eventually be included. That even includes Mi Tienda stores in Houston.

Payments can be made with those apps, or "digital wallets," at cash registers and self-checkout lanes, as well as restaurants and pharmacies within H-E-B stores. They won't be accepted right away at H-E-B fuel pumps, but customers can use them to pay for gas if they bring their phones to the fuel station payment window.

This isn't exactly cutting-edge technology; Google Wallet launched in 2011, leading the market, and was followed by Apple Pay in 2014. But it's not ubiquitous either. In 2023, a poll by Forbes Advisor found that barely more than half of respondents used digital wallets more than traditional forms of payment.

H-E-B is on a bit of a payment revolutionizing kick, also launching a debit card in 2022 and a partnership in August of 2024 with Austin-based delivery service Favor for its fastest order fulfillment yet. Central Market and Joe V’s Smart Shop, two other H-E-B brands, were also outfitted with tap-to-pay services, which rolled out across the state this summer.

“At H-E-B, we’re always exploring a broad range of technologies to enhance how customers shop and pay for products,” said H-E-B Group Vice President of Marketing and Payments Ashwin Nathan in the release. “This has been one of the most requested services we have received from our customers and partners, and we are excited to now make this popular technology available at all our H-E-B locations.”

More information about H-E-B is available at heb.com.

h-e-b grocery technology