Law Blog

Drunk Driving Death – Personal Injury Attorneys

auto-accident

The drunk driving death toll is increasing yearly. Drunk driving crashes end up maiming passengers, pedestrians and even the drivers themselves. That’s only if you are lucky! Too many times injury and disfigurement are the result for a drunk driving victim. The loss of life is the horrifying end result of a large number of accidents caused by drunk drivers.

According to statistics, it is more likely for male drivers to be involved in drunk driving accidents than female drivers, but that isn’t much comfort to the family of a drunk driving victim. It is evident that the number of youths getting involved in drinking and driving is also going up and there are many repeat offenders.

Below are top reasons why a drunk driving death or injury is so devastating when accidents occur…

The carelessness of the drunk driver usually results in an inability to control or manage the vehicle. Even if a secondary vehicle is not involved, this loss of control can result in injuries or death of either the driver, passenger, or a pedestrian.

Drunk driving accidents are heartbreaking and not only to an innocent passenger or unsuspecting pedestrian. Even if the driver is the only occupant and injures/kills only themselves, the family is left devastated. A drunk driving death affects the family for years to come.

If death does not occur as a result of the drunk driving accident, and only injury or dismemberment occurs, there is still a cost to the family. Beyond the heartache, the family may be forced to care for the injured party indefinitely because of their loss of ability to function properly on their own.

In most cases of drunk driving accidents, the vehicles are traveling at high speed. Someone under the influence of alcohol is unable to use proper judgment and control while driving. Combine those two variables and death and disaster are the inevitable result.

Medically speaking, the facts about drunk driving declare that the presence of alcohol in the body is very dangerous in the event of an accident. The body becomes more vulnerable to harm during injuries. Many drunk driving victims die due to alcohol presence in the body.
Literature regarding the facts about drunk driving tell us that alcohol damages your senses in such a way that your response time is decreased, your ability to multi-task is diminished, and your brain can’t process the visual information it receives as quickly as it normally can.

The drunk driving facts also tell us that our natural caution levels are reduced, we are less attentive, and we are less able to handle complicated situations when under the influence of alcohol.

All these effects hinder your driving capability, putting you at risk of an accident, and putting in jeopardy the lives of you and your friends, family, and others on the road.

The law acknowledges that this is one of the most dangerous causes of reckless driving. Therefore, some tough measures should be imposed to curb this malice.

In most cases, a drunk driving death or drunk driving victim tend to be the result of hardcore drunk drivers with repeated offenses. These people need to be stopped for good.

Among some important measures that should are implemented is the introduction of sobriety check points. These can reduce the number of deaths related to drunk driving, but only if harsh penalties are put in place for those who offend.

Every drunk driving death could be avoided! There is no excuse for drivers who get behind the wheel if they have had any level of alcohol in their system. In my opinion, the only way to really save lives is to get rid of the alcohol altogether. I doubt that will ever happen, but hopefully drunk driving laws will make the penalty for driving while under the influence so severe that people will be less likely to take the risk. More on this website

Truck Accident Lawyers – Wrongful Death Claims

truck accident lawyer

As injury lawyers, it is not uncommon for us to review potential wrongful death claims involving truck driver fatigue. We often see this in the context of tractor-trailer accidents where the truck driver has fabricated his driver’s log and/or driven far in excess of his allowable hours. Many times there is demonstrated sleep loss involving the use of amphetamines, methamphetamines or other stimulants used by the driver to overcome the fatigue.

According to a newsletter we recently ran across published by a well-respected truck safety organization, there is an interesting correlation between sleep loss, fatigue and the serious impairment caused by being legally drunk. Studies have shown that the impairment from sleep loss and long working hours are almost the same caused by alcohol consumption. The longer one is awake, the slower the reaction time. If one gets too little sleep (4 or less hours) this is equivalent to the effects of .05% blood alcohol for long working hours. In one study, where people were kept awake for 24 straight hours, the slowed perception reaction time had approximately the same effect as .10% blood alcohol level which is above the level (.08%) now nationally recognized as being legally drunk. Thus, it can be clinically demonstrated that if one loses sleep for a long period of time one’s perception and reaction time is dangerously slowed.

In our personal injury practice we often see evidence of serious impairment caused by fatigue and lack of sleep. The end result of such fatigue we see in our practice is a serious collision. Increasingly, we see this, particularly in the context of truck drivers who are trying to increase their wages by driving longer and longer hours and greater and greater distances. Even though large trucks make up just 4% of all registered vehicles, and 7% of all vehicle miles traveled, the same trucks are involved in 11% of all crash fatalities. This year, as in years past, approximately 5,000 people will be killed in truck crashes and collisions throughout the country. We know from our experience that many of these crashes are preventable and would not occur if drivers kept shorter hours and were not seriously impaired by fatigue. While commercial airline pilots typically fly only about 30 hours a month, most truck drivers drive around 300 hours a month. For some reason, this has become acceptable in the workplace even though the number of people killed in truck crashes annually exceeds the number of people that are killed in major airline crashes. Query why this is so?

With improvements in technology, before long, employers and trucking companies will be able to monitor precisely the hours being kept by their truck drivers. We can only hope that legislation will follow that mandates that employers not only monitor the number of hours driven but also the number of hours taken by the driver to rest. Too many hours driving means too much fatigue which also means possible impairment of perception and reaction times. Because we see the end result of this, which is serious injury, death and tragedy for our client’s families, and we can only hope that the speed of technology will continue to develop to the point where trucking companies will have no choice but to monitor and address the significant safety issues caused by driver fatigue. For more information about Truck Accident Lawyers click here, please

Finding The Right Lawyer

When you’re facing an especially serious and complicated injury claim, you need to find personal injury lawyer. Of course, you can’t get the help you need if you hire just any old lawyer. Try to find one with experience in personal injury claims, one you know you can trust to get an successful outcome.

Find Personal Injury Lawyer
There are different ways of getting referrals for finding your personal injury lawyer. After you have a few referrals, make sure you do some comparison shopping. Get together with several of your leads to discuss you claim and see how you feel about them. Go in prepared to reject and/or be rejected. A lot of lawyers won’t touch a case unless the recovery amount is to their benefit or if the facts of a claim are obscure.

Here are some good referral hunting places:

1) Friend and Acquaintances

Have a talk with your friends or your coworkers. Chances are some of them have had to use lawyers to represent them in their own claims. If they give you a good recommendation, then follow up on that. However, you should not let a good recommendation from a friend or coworker be the sole basis for hiring your attorney. People have different needs and are in different situations, only you can figure out if this attorney is best for you. Reserve judgment until you have discussed your case and feel comfortable working with the attorney you’re discussing it with.

2) Other Attorneys

Another great attorney hunting place is by asking an attorney you already know. Regardless of the kind of law they’re involved in, they know people and hear things that can be of benefit to you. They move in those circles. Again, you don’t want to just take their word for it, but they can give you an excellent lead.
3) Referral Services

Most of the local bar associations offer referral services. They arrange the names of available lawyers according to their specialties. The services of lawyers covers a very broad range of legal areas. There is also a broad range of quality levels in terms of referral services, some are just better than others. Before deciding on what referral service to use, ask about its qualifications and about how carefully they screen their lawyers.
One thing that might be missing from a lawyer referral service is the insight into a particular lawyer’s philosophy. Some are willing to become your legal coach and some are reluctant. Some are more aggressive than others. Always screen them yourself in person. Use the leads you can get but do your own screening and make your own decisions. This is how you find a personal injury lawyer.