Drunk Driving Accident

A woman who crashed her car into a Fort Lauderdale pool cabana last March, killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child, has been charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter.

As reported in a previous blog, the 34-year-old driver smashed into the poolside cabana at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale after losing control of her car. The victim was a tourist from Boston and was seven months pregnant at the time of the accident. She had won the trip to Fort Lauderdale through her church and was attending a marriage conference.

According to the search warrant, the accused told investigators that she had ordered a “martini and appetizers” at a local restaurant the day of the accident. She then reportedly got into an argument with her husband, left the restaurant, and sped out of the parking lot in her Audi.

She traveled a block-and-a-half before crashing.

According to recently released blood alcohol test results, the driver had a level of .24% — three times over the legal limit. She claims she didn’t remember crashing into the building.

Along with the two DUI manslaughter charges, she has also been charged with two counts of DUI property damage. Under current Florida law, she cannot be charged in connection with the death of the unborn child.

The driver was arrested and was later released on bail.

The death of a loved one is one of life’s most painful experiences — especially if that death is due to negligence or the wrongful act of another. The Florida wrongful death attorneys at Farah & Farah are here to help your family hold those responsible for an avoidable death accountable for their actions. If you believe you have a case, call us at (800) 533-3555.

Imagine a scenario in which your high school-aged son has been involved in a horrendous fatal DUI accident in Florida. Think about the pain you would feel.

Now, imagine that your son is not the victim, but the person responsible for the accident.

That’s what one man from Ridge Manor had to live through when he received a call from his wife in 2007 telling him that his son had been in an accident. While driving to the accident scene, like any parent, he worried that his son had been injured. He knew something was terribly wrong when he pulled up and saw nearly two dozen emergency vehicles at the crash scene — and his son sitting in the backseat of a patrol car.

He learned his son had been drinking earlier that afternoon and had been driving his pickup truck 60 mph in a 30 mph zone before he struck a minivan. His blood alcohol level was .207 — more than twice the legal limit.

The next day, he received the news that a 13-year-old middle school girl who was a passenger in the minivan had died from her injuries.

“The death of that little girl just devastated me, I can tell you it still does,” said the father.

In the wake of the accident, the father formed the group “Driving Sober To Save A Life”. While the message is much like that of “Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” his organization’s perspective comes from parents whose children have been the cause of senseless drunk driving deaths.

The father, who travels across the country to give talks about the dangers of drunk driving, doesn’t accept donations for his group. He says that coming up with the idea of the organization was the only way he could sleep in the months after the accident. He stresses that he holds his son “100% responsible” for the accident and is trying to prevent any other young person from following in his son’s footsteps.

His son is currently serving a 13-year sentence for DUI manslaughter.

The Florida drunk driving accident attorneys at Farah & Farah laud Driving Sober To Save A Life’s mission to keep young people from driving drunk. To get more information on the group, please go to drivingsober.net.

It’s been said that everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day — but, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants to make motorists aware that the luck of the Irish may run out for them if they decide get behind the wheel after a St. Patty’s Day bash.

To drive the point home to green-bedecked revelers, the NHTSA is mounting a St. Patrick’s Day Impaired Driving Prevention Campaign in conjunction with state and local governments from March 12-18, reminding would-be partiers that getting in their cars and driving drunk can bring dire consequences to themselves and to others.

According to NHTSA statistics, in 2009, there were 103 crash fatalities on St. Patrick’s Day. Of those accidents, 37 percent involved people with blood-alcohol levels of .08 or higher.

Here are a few suggestions to make your St. Patrick’s Day party plans safer:

• Make a plan for a safe way home before you go out.
• Choose a designated sober driver and leave your car keys at home.
• Use your community’s sober ride program.
• Call law enforcement if you see a drunk driver on the road.
• Take the car keys away from those too drunk to drive and help them arrange for other transportation to get them where they are going safely.

Impaired driving not only can result in death and injuries on Florida’s roads and highways, it can also mean arrest, loss of license, higher insurance rates, jail time, and job loss; plus a whole litany of expenses from court costs to auto repairs.

The Orlando drunk driving accident lawyers at Farah & Farah wants everybody to have fun on St. Patrick’s Day — just be smart and do it responsibly. Let’s get everybody home safe this year.

Sources: http://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/CAMPAIGNS/Drunk+Driving/Buzzed+Driving+is+Drunk+Driving/Saint+Patrick%27s+Day

Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk. That’s the message that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the National Football League (NFL), and Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) is pushing for this Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Through an integrated campaign of press releases, posters, and various programs, the three partners are not just stressing this message to the thousands of fans who will actually be at the stadium for this year’s Super Bowl, but to the millions of people who will be attending Super Bowl parties this weekend. By emphasizing the need to select designated drivers and taking car keys away from intoxicated fans, the goal is to get everybody home safely after the game and to prevent drunk driving accidents in Florida and throughout the United States.

For the ninth year in a row, the NFL’s Responsibility Has Its Rewards campaign has teamed with beer and concessionaire companies at every NFL stadium across the country to encourage fans to participate in its designated-driver program. Throughout the season over 175,000 fans made the commitment to be designated drivers. And Responsibility Has Its Rewards actually has tangible rewards as randomly selected designated-drivers from the AFL and NFL Championship teams will attend this year’s Super Bowl.

According to NHSTA statistics, in 2010, over 10,000 people were killed in in motor vehicle in which at least one driver was intoxicated. The Jacksonville personal injury law firm of Farah & Farah applauds any program which promotes safety and accident prevention by keeping drunk drivers off of our roads. We encourage you to enjoy the game and have fun this Super Bowl Sunday, but please, be responsible.

By Eddie Farah

‘Tis the season to hear warnings about the number of drivers who choose to drive after enjoying holiday celebrations.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is teaming up with law enforcement and state agencies to remind us that drinking and driving is illegal. As part of the seasonal and national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, expect to see a visible effort on the roadways to cut down on drunk driving, such as sobriety checkpoints and patrols and media reminders in public service campaigns.

GHSA reports in a press release issued December 14 that 415 people lost their lives in crashes involving a drunk driver in the last half of December in 2010. New Year’s Day, January 1, is among the Top Five deadliest days of the year for U.S. drivers.

Florida Law Concerning Alcohol

According to the GHSA, Florida considers a high blood-alcohol content (BAC) to be .20 or higher, the highest degree of intoxication among all of the states. The minimum level for intoxication is 0.08. A first offense can bring six months in jail. A high BAC at .15 or higher can mean a mandatory ignition-interlock on the vehicle requiring a driver to breathe into a device before the ignition lock will allow him or her to drive.

The holidays will not be a good time to drink and drive, not that it’s ever a good time for that exercise. Instead, name a designated driver who does not care to drink, or plan to take a cab to and from your party. The Jacksonville drunk driving accident injury lawyers at Farah & Farah suggest these arrangements be made before the party not after a few drinks when you are less likely to be reasonable.

Source: http://www.ghsa.org/html/media/pressreleases/2011/20111214_dsogpo.html; http://www.madd.org/

December will be a very bad month to drink and drive in Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) plans a month-long crackdown on drunk driving around the state to reduce the number of deaths this holiday season. The state effort coincides with the Nationwide Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.

Florida Accident Statistics

FHP wants to have a better holiday season in the state than last year when 32 people died on Florida roads due to alcohol-related crashes over the New Year’s holiday travel period. During the four-day Christmas holiday in 2010, 24 people died on our roads with eight of those crashes alcohol-related. Accidents involving drug use went from 1,090 fatalities in 2009 down to 1,063 in 2010.

The strong presence of law enforcement tends to have a positive effect on reducing roadway deaths, particularly when troopers are ready to conduct field sobriety tests. However the field tests are voluntary and some experts contend that the test results are unreliable. In Florida a blood-alcohol test is considered reliable and accurate and can determine if a driver is impaired, considered to be at 0.08% blood alcohol content and above.

The Farah & Farah drunk driving accident injury lawyers in Florida encourage everyone to assign a designated driver if you plan to drink or take a cab instead of your own car. The same holds true for drugs, many of which are prescription drugs that are given freely by some medical professionals and can have the same negative effect as drinking on driving.

Be sure you make your plans in advance of going out and celebrating because after drinking is a very bad time to make a decision about driving.

Source: http://www.pnj.com/article/20111205/NEWS01/111205007/Florida-Highway-Patrol-cracking-down-driving-under-influence?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p; http://www.flhsmv.gov/ddl/duilaws.html

Three families are suffering following a pedestrian collision which killed two teenagers in Brantley County, Georgia, early Friday morning, November 18.

A 24-year-old driver from Nahunta, Georgia has been charged with two counts of homicide, as well as a DUI and driving on the wrong side of the road.

The teens were walking on Buffalo Creek Road near Hickox, Georgia at about 2 a.m. The driver was eastbound on the same road in a Grand Cherokee when he hit the teens, one age 19 from Waycross, and the other age 18 from Brunswick, dragging one boy under the vehicle. The two were pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the Jeep was not injured.

The Brunswick auto accident lawyers of Farah & Farah law firm extends our condolences to the friends and families of these two teens for their passing.

The story in the News4Jax web site does not say whether the young driver remained on the scene. He is likely facing a long incarceration for this crash, and these families may never recover fully from their loss.

Family members would be well-advised to seek a full investigation to determine the extent of the fault the driver shares from this tragic accident. He could be responsible for compensating these families for their pain and suffering, as well as the wrongful death of the teenagers. Farah & Farah has law offices all over Florida and in Brunswick, Georgia, and we offer a complimentary consultation to anyone who has been a victim of an auto or pedestrian crash to fully inform them of their legal options. The number to reach us is 1(800) 533-3555.

Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/Ga-State-Patrol-2-teens-killed-by-DUI-driver/-/475880/4801410/-/ewqeio/-/index.html

Just how common is drinking and driving? You may think every other person on the road on any given Saturday night is drunk, and you’d be close to right.

It’s estimated about 11,000 people died in crashes in 2009 involving alcohol-impaired drivers, or one in three crashes resulted in death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 112 million incidents of drinking and driving occurred in 2010. This translates to about 300,000 times every day.

The study published in the CDC’s Vital Signs on Tuesday, October 4, relied on data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. It finds:

• Young men ages 21 to 34 make up only 11% of the population but were involved in 32% of all drunken driving episodes.
• This is overwhelmingly a male problem. The study found 81% of drinking and driving incidents in 2010 involved men.
• The worst offenders were involved in binge drinking; this means men had five or more drinks at one time and women had four or more drinks.

The Solution to the Public Health Problem of Drunk Driving

To address the problem, the study concludes:

• Keep sobriety checkpoints
• Maintain the minimum legal drinking age at 21 (currently it’s 21 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia)
• Ignition interlocks prevent drivers who have past drunk driving convictions from operating their vehicles if they have been drinking

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) reports that in 2008, 39.5% of traffic fatalities were alcohol-related and 9.1% of traffic crashes were alcohol-related. In 2009-2010, there were 9,605 DUI arrests and in 2009, among the 2,563 fatalities on Florida roads, 1,004 were alcohol-related.

In auto accidents where drunk driving is involved, the victim can seek compensation for his or her medical expenses, rehabilitation, and lost wages, as well as for pain and suffering. The experienced Florida drunk driving accident lawyers at Farah & Farah can guide the accident victim through the process to help them seek compensation.

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2011/10/cdc-112-million-annual-incidents-of-drunken-driving.html; http://www.flhsmv.gov/html/FactsFigures/0911.pdf; http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/

A former Marine drove his car the wrong way on a Tampa interstate in April 2010 and killed the driver of an oncoming car. The driver’s blood alcohol level was more than three times the level considered intoxicated. But it was not a clear case of DUI manslaughter.

His lawyers argued their client was a Marine captain who earned three Purple Hearts after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and suffered severe head trauma during his time there. He nearly died from blood loss and had to dig a mass grave for Iraqi civilians. His lawyers say the war had given their client post-traumatic stress disorder and brain damage and caused him to black out the night of the crash.

The Marine is pleading not guilty and his lawyer will offer an insanity defense at trial. The argument has the backing of Marine Corps investigators who wrote an 860-page report saying that post-traumatic stress disorder should be more thoroughly evaluated.

After the Marine was discharged it was determined he was suffering from PTSD and had mild deficits in learning and attention difficulties. His family would notice he talked gibberish and didn’t remember events. He experienced flashbacks, headaches and dizzy spells, and was drinking heavily and having dissociative episodes where he couldn’t remember where he was going and what he was doing. And he was on medication to treat anxiety, schizophrenia and depression.

Even after that assessment, he was determined to be fit for full duty and sent to report to MacDill Air Force Base. Before he could report to duty he drove into the man, a mechanic with a family who had been helping a friend whose care had broken down.

The crash prevented the Marine from being deployed a fifth time.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/23/marine-claims-brain-trauma-led-to-fatal-dui-crash/

There is a new nationwide ad campaign to crackdown on pre-dawn drunk driving crashes. Every 23 minutes a life is lost and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is launching the nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign which will focus on nighttime law enforcement. That’s because research shows that the hours between midnight and 3 a.m. are the most deadly for drunk driving crashes. The campaign will be sent out to the American driving public, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Research by the DOT found that among crashes occurring during those hours, two-thirds involved a drunk driver. The DOT also found that one out of four of the nearly 11,000 drivers killed in car crashes that involved a drunk driver in 2009 died between midnight and 3 a.m. Other findings:

• One in three drivers between the ages of 21 to 24 involved in fatal crashes had consumed alcohol and were impaired.
• Drivers in the 25 to 34 age group were the second group most likely to be involved in an alcohol-impaired fatal crash.
• The next worst hours for fatal crashes involving alcohol were between 9 p.m. and midnight and 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.

The Jacksonville drunk driving accident victim lawyers at the Farah & Farah law firm advise drivers who go to a bar to be reminded – law enforcement plans to be observing alcohol-impaired individuals before they start the car. It is definitely a good time to return to the “designated driver” policy or take a cab. Individual states will coordinate their advertising with the DOT and enforce drunk driving laws. The first crackdown will take place in the last week of August through the Labor Day holiday. Expect the campaign to last nationwide until the year 2016.

Sources: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811523.pdf and http://drivesober.nhtsa.gov/