For some time, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol has been a significant cause of car accidents. Today, distracted driving, which includes anything that takes your attention away from the road, is on the rise. Talking or texting on the phone, eating, adjusting music controls, and using a navigation system can distract a driver. According to the National Highway Traffic Administration, in 2015, 3,477 car accidents involving distracted driving resulted in fatalities. The largest age group reported as[…] Read More
Drunk Driving Down, Drugged Driving Up
At one time, drunk driving was a big topic. Then organizations like MADD arose to combat that social ill. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the nation has seen a 24 percent decline in drunk driving accidents since 2006. That is the good news. The bad news is that drugged driving has taken up the slack by increasing over 21 percent just since 2013. As terrible as drunk driving is, drugged driving car accidents tend to be[…] Read More
Dangers of Drugged Driving
DUIs as a result of drinking are a common cause of many car accidents, but there recently there has been a sharp increase in another form of DUI: drugged driving. According to Pennsylvania State Police, drugged driving arrests have skyrocketed 43 percent over the last two years. In 2015 alone, 4,431 individuals were charged with DUIs stemming from operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs. The Difficulties Assessing Drugged Drivers The state police agency examined 4,492 DUI car[…] Read More
Why So Many Americans Involved in Car Crashes
Car accidents are one of the most common type of accident to occur in the United States on a regular basis. This might not be completely surprising to most Americans because most of us drive every single day. With millions of cars on the road driving countless people to their destinations, there is a high chance that some of those people are going to be involved in a crash. But the car accidents that occur on American roadways every day[…] Read More
Legal Options for Victims of Drunk Driving Accidents
Nationwide, thousands of individuals are fatally injured every year in drug and alcohol related car accidents, and hundreds of thousands more people incur non-fatal injuries. Many injuries are life-changing and survivors of a drunk driving car accident may spend the rest of their lives disabled from a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. Furthermore, individuals will not only experience both physical and emotional pain but also the financial burden of medical bills from treatment. When an individual is in[…] Read More
DUI Crash Statistics
In 2013, over 10,000 people in the U.S. were victims of fatal car accidents involving a driver who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Drunk driving car accidents accounted for nearly a third of all fatal traffic accidents that year. In Pennsylvania the same year, there were 1,208 fatalities as a result of a DUI crash. Sadly, all of these fatalities were preventable. The 2013 rate of fatal drunk driving car accidents declined 2.5% from 2012 to 2013, according[…] Read More
DUI Crackdown in Montgomery County
Driving while under the influence is a bad choice that turns a driver’s vehicle into a weapon of mass destruction. There is not a county in Pennsylvania that is immune to the effects of this problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that one third of all 2013 traffic fatalities in Pennsylvania were attributable to drunk driving. In Montgomery County, the proliferation of these DUI cases led to the formation of a dedicated DUI court. This was a measure[…] Read More
DUI Task Force Targets Pennsylvania Drunk Driving
The Fourth of July, Memorial Day and more recently, St. Patrick’s Day, are popular holidays that can too often result in an incident of drunk driving. Officials in Pennsylvania have developed driving under the influence (DUI) task forces throughout the state in an effort to reduce this dangerous activity. The intention is to protect drivers from drunk driving car accidents, and to keep individuals who have been drinking at holiday celebrations from getting behind the wheel of a car from[…] Read More
Drunk Driving Deaths in Motor Vehicle Accidents Go Under-Reported
According to a recent article published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents involving alcohol and drugs are considerably under-reported on U.S. death certificates. Researchers used information from death certificates across the nation with data from U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System to compare the number of death certificates that included alcohol as contributing factor in car accident fatalities. They discovered an estimated 18% of motor vehicle[…] Read More
Drunk Driving Study Shows No Safe BAC Level
A new study indicates that there is no safe blood alcohol content level (BAC) for those intending to drive, but 0.00. The study, led by David Phillips of the University of California San Diego, revealed that even a BAC of .01 can impair a driver’s ability. Researchers analyzed data from 570,731 fatal crashes between 1994 and 2011, compiled by the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Phillips and his team focused primarily on crashes involving “buzzed drivers,” those with a BAC[…] Read More