Earlier this month in White Plains, a tragic head-on accident left a mother of three dead. According to a report by CBS New York, an off-duty fire fighter was arrested and charged with DWI and negligent homicide for his involvement in the fatal accident.
Evidently, the 47-year-old woman was out delivering newspapers around 4:30 in the morning on Monday. She was accompanied by her husband, who was driving her through her route in a gray Honda on South Lexington. Suddenly, a driver in a Chevy Tahoe approached the couple from the opposite direction, traveling the wrong way down a one-way street. The two vehicles collided head-on.
The force of the collision was so great that it sent the Honda back almost 200 feet from where the collision occurred. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and her husband was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the Tahoe, an off-duty fireman, was tested for alcohol and had a blood-alcohol content of .145, which is nearly twice the legal limit in New York. He was arrested for DWI and negligent homicide and is being held on $25,000 bail.
As it turns out, the driver had a previous DWI conviction back in 2003, when his blood-alcohol content was almost three times the legal limit. He avoided a jail sentence back then by accepting treatment for alcohol abuse.
Drunk Driving Accidents in New York
Any time a person gets behind the wheel of a car with a blood-alcohol content of .08 or greater, he or she is legally intoxicated and should not be driving. In fact, a person’s actual BAC does not even need to be that high, as long as it can be shown that he or she was impaired by some kind of substance while operating the vehicle.
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is taken very seriously in New York. This has led to a series of laws being passed to help accident victims involved in drunk-driving accidents to recover financially for their injuries.
In New York, anyone injured as a result of drunk driving may be entitled to obtain monetary compensation for his or her medical expenses as well as for pain and suffering. In many cases of drunk or drugged driving, the accident victim actually has an easier job proving his or her case than in traditional negligence actions. This is due to the criminal laws prohibiting drunk driving.
Have You Been Injured by a Drunk Driver?
If you or a loved one has recently been injured in a drunk driving accident, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To learn more about how the accident laws in New York work to protect the injured, and to speak to a dedicated Long Island personal injury attorney about your potential case, call the law firm of Duffy & Duffy today. At Duffy & Duffy, we understand the difficulties of being involved in a serious accident and help our clients through the process from beginning to end. Call (516) 394-4200 to set up a free consultation today.
See Other Blog Posts:
New York Nursing Home Successfully Sued for $2 Million After Negligent Care Led to Stage-IV Bedsore, Long Island Injury Lawyers Blog, September 29, 2014.
“Special Knowledge” Jury Instruction Required Reversal of Verdict in Plaintiff’s Favor, Long Island Injury Lawyers Blog, September 29, 2014.
