Frisco mother leads TxDOT sober driving campaign after daughter’s death

Sue Beatty is using the death of her daughter, Carly Beatty, to push Texas drivers toward one decision that cannot be undone. Carly Beatty, a 19-year-old Texas A&M student from Frisco, was killed by an impaired driver while walking home, and her mother has become part of TxDOT’s new Drive Sober. No Regrets. campaign.

TxDOT rolled out the campaign during a heightened enforcement period that ran from June 19 through July 6, a stretch aligned with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s summer crackdown on impaired driving. The effort traveled the state in a former beverage delivery truck that TxDOT retrofitted as a mobile sober-driving education exhibit, and the message sits under the agency’s broader Drive Like a Texan initiative.

The numbers behind the campaign are grim. TxDOT says Texas loses three people a day to impaired driving, and its 2024 crash facts report counted 1,053 deaths in motor vehicle crashes where a driver was under the influence of alcohol. That was 25.37% of all traffic deaths in Texas last year. The same report showed more DUI-alcohol crashes occurred between 2:00 a.m. and 2:59 a.m. than in any other hour, a reminder that the risk rises sharply in the pre-dawn hours when people are leaving bars, parties and late-night gatherings.

TxDOT also is trying to drive home the legal and financial cost before a crash happens. In Texas, a driver is legally intoxicated at a 0.08% blood alcohol concentration, but the law is already broken as soon as alcohol or drugs affect driving ability. TxDOT says combining alcohol and THC makes a driver 25 times more likely to cause a fatal crash, and a DWI can cost up to $17,000 in fines and fees, along with jail time, loss of a driver’s license, community service, court appearances, court-ordered classes and long-term trouble finding or keeping a job.

For families in Frisco, Collin County and across North Texas, the campaign lands in the middle of summer travel and July Fourth traffic, when officers are watching for impaired drivers and roads fill with people headed to cookouts, lake trips and holiday events. Beatty’s story gives the state campaign a local face, but its aim is broader: keep one more driver from turning a night out into a permanent loss.