Florida Republicans just passed the toughest DUI law in state history.
The law is named after a boy killed by a repeat drunk driver who got too many second chances.
Then a Florida trooper pulled over a Honda Civic doing 90 mph and found something that explains exactly why they had to pass it.
What Was Inside That Car
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was running northbound patrol on I-75 near mile marker 280 in Pasco County late on June 12 when a Honda Civic blew past him at over 90 mph.
The trooper pulled it over.
The driver – 33-year-old Conor William Parady of San Antonio, Florida – appeared to be heavily intoxicated the moment the window rolled down.
Then the trooper looked inside the car.
Thirty-four open White Claw hard seltzer cans were inside the vehicle.
https://twitter.com/TaraBull/status/2066235682008223959?s=20
Not one open beer.
Not a flask.
Thirty-four open cans.
Parady was arrested for DUI and transported to the Pasco County Jail, where a breath test registered a blood alcohol concentration of 0.177 – more than twice Florida's legal limit of 0.08.
For context: the most commonly recorded BAC in fatal drunk driving crashes nationwide is 0.18, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Parady was one one-hundredth of a percentage point below the average BAC of someone who kills somebody.
Why Florida Already Knew This Was Coming
Florida lawmakers didn't pass Trenton's Law by accident.
The legislation – which took effect October 1, 2025 – is named after Trenton Crooks, a boy killed in a crash involving a drunk driver who had prior offenses and kept getting chances he didn't deserve.
The law doubled prison exposure for repeat DUI manslaughter defendants from 15 years to 30 years.
It made refusing a breathalyzer a criminal offense for the first time in Florida history.
And it put permanent license revocation on the table for certain repeat offenders.
Florida Republicans passed it because they understood what men like Parady look like before someone gets killed – behind the wheel, hammered, doing 90 in traffic.
Florida has averaged roughly 5,168 drunk driving accidents every year.
Those aren't numbers – those are families on the same highway Parady was on that night.
The Trooper Did His Job Right
There's a version of this story that ends differently.
Parady exits I-75 before the trooper clocks his speed.
He blows through a red light, or drifts into oncoming traffic, or rear-ends a minivan at 90 mph.
The trooper who spotted that Honda Civic and made that stop prevented something that Trenton's Law was written specifically to stop happening again.
A Republican legislature looked at years of preventable deaths, named a law after one of the victims, gave law enforcement real teeth, and then a trooper used exactly the kind of attentiveness that law was designed to support.
The system worked the way it's supposed to.
Parady is in the Pasco County Jail.
Whether Parady has an attorney has not been reported.
Sources:
- Brittany Miller, "Florida man arrested for DUI after troopers allegedly find 34 open alcohol containers in vehicle," Fox News, June 14, 2026.
- "34 Open White Claw Cans Found Inside Vehicle During Pasco County DUI Arrest, FHP Says," Pasco News Online, June 13, 2026.
- "Trenton's Law: Florida's Enhanced DUI and BUI Penalties Effective October 1, 2025," Brancato Law Firm, December 2025.
- "Drunk Driving," National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2024.
- "Florida Drunk Driving Deaths 2025," Allen Law, February 2026.
