HOUSTON -- Harris County is one of the most populated counties in the United States and it also has more drunken-driving-related deaths per capita than any other county, KPRC Local 2 reported Sunday.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 203 people were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes in Harris County in 2006.

Early Sunday, Houston Police Officer Gary Gryder was struck and killed, allegedly by a driver under the influence.

Gryder, a 25-year veteran of the department, was outside his patrol vehicle directing traffic. Local 2 has learned emergency lights were flashing and barricades were up near the site.

"Obviously the officers are going to have emergency equipment out there. Flashing lights are everywhere on the barricades and cars. It's the drinking and drug abuse that put this guy in the situation. I'd like to believe if he'd been sober he would have been able to heed all the warnings and we wouldn't have lost one today," said Capt. Bruce Williams of the Houston Police Department.

Gryder isn't the first officer to be killed by a suspected drunken driver. In 2004, Officer Frank Cantu, a 19-year HPD veteran, was struck and killed by a drunken driver. Cantu was on-duty and had to be extricated from his vehicle. The driver refused a field sobriety test.

Also in 2004, Precinct 4 Deputy Constable Scott Claborn was working an extra job at a construction site when a drunken driver hit his patrol car. The 22-year-old driver's blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.