Three members of a family including a 4-year-old child were killed in a car accident in upstate New York. According to an NBC New York news report, the family was on a road trip to Niagara Falls when a suspected drunk driver in a pickup truck blew a stop sign and struck the SUV carrying the family. The driver of the pickup truck, a 20-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated vehicular homicide, DWI and reckless driving.
Injuries and Fatalities
The crash fatally injured a 4-year-old girl, her mother and grandmother, and left another young family member hospitalized in critical condition. Police said five other people, were also injured in the crash, which occurred at the intersection of Route 20A and Maxon Road in Sheldon, a town about 30 miles southeast of Buffalo. Investigators say the family of nine was heading west on Route 20A when their minivan was T-boned by a pickup truck and that the truck had blown through a stop sign just before the collision. The driver of the pickup truck was taken to a hospital and was later arrested.
Drunk Driving Statistics and Laws
According to New York Vehicle and Traffic Laws Section 1192, it is illegal to operate a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. It is also against the law to operate a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher. For commercial vehicles, that legal limit is 0.04 percent.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes. That’s one person every 48 minutes in 2017. These deaths have fallen by a third in the last three decades; however, drunk-driving crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year. In 2010, the most recent year for which cost data is available, these deaths and damages contributed to a cost of $44 billion that year.
Drunk Driving Prevention
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10 or greater is seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash compared to a driver who has not consumed alcoholic beverages. A driver with a BAC of 0.15 or greater is about 25 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. Essentially, the more alcohol you consume, the more likely you are to cause a fatal accident.
Summer, in particular, is a dangerous time when we see more drunk drivers on the road. With holiday weekends and people on vacation, there is an increased likelihood of
impaired drivers on our roadways. It is crucial for drivers to assign a sober, designated person to take them home if they plan to imbibe. There is also the option of calling a cab or using a rideshare app to get home safely. Drinking and driving puts drivers, passengers and everyone else on the roadway in grave danger. If you are drinking, the best course of action is to never drive, regardless of how many drinks you may have had.
Contacting a Car Accident Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, or if you have lost a loved one in an auto accident caused by a negligent (careless) driver, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you.
For over 49 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims get fair compensation for their losses. Our law firm recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NY-Crash-That-Killed-3-Generations-Leaves-Girl-Hospitalized-510672411.html