The media here in Colorado report deaths on the state’s roadways far more often than anyone would like to see. When fatal motor vehicle accidents occur, one of the questions that law enforcement agencies, and even the media, have is whether alcohol was a factor. This is because a disturbing number of deadly crashes involve drunk driving.
People may not realize that someone dies in a drunk driving accident approximately every 51 minutes in the United States. Someone is injured in such a crash approximately every two minutes as well. All of these injuries and deaths happen in accidents that are entirely preventable.
Research indicates that on any given day, the country’s roads have around 300,000 drunk drivers on them. It can take as many as 80 instances of driving under the influence before some drivers are even stopped by law enforcement. That means that many drivers on Colorado’s roads may be out there with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher who voluntarily got behind the wheels of their cars after drinking. Those drivers also voluntarily put the lives of everyone around them in danger.
Fatal motor vehicle accidents caused by these drivers leave numerous families without loved ones. Those surviving family members retain the right to file wrongful death claims against all parties who may have some legal responsibility for the death. Successfully establishing negligence could result in an award of damages to help with the financial losses that inevitably occur in the aftermath of unexpected and premature losses of life due to such tragedies.
Source: madd.org, “#Infographic Drunk Driving Stats”, Accessed on Aug. 20, 2017