Information about Drunk Driving Accidents
If you or someone you love has been injured or killed in a drunk driving related accident, a personal injury attorney may be able to help. It is illegal to operate any motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08% or higher. For people under the age of 21, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle with a BAC of .02% or higher. (The .02% is allowed because certain mouthwashes and non-alcoholic beverages can register as alcohol by some tests.)
Every year, well over 1 million Americans are arrested for driving under the influence. Furthermore, some reports estimate that by the time a first time offender is caught and charged with drunk driving, he or she has already driven drunk an average of 87 times.
Currently there are also over 1 million Americans who are injured in drunk driving related accidents each year. 10 to 15% of those injuries result in death. Drunk driving accidents often involve high speeds and exceptionally unsafe or reckless driving. Injuries are often more severe because of this. Some common drunk driving accident injuries are brain injury, burns, disfigurement, fractured or broken bones, internal bleeding, paralysis, spinal cord injury, and other catastrophic injuries. Ironically, often the responsible party is unhurt or does not sustain injuries nearly as severe as his victims. This is because alcohol decreases the body's intuitive responses, and the drunk driver's body is often slack during the accident, meaning that it can absorb more of the crash with less damage.
The medical costs associated with injuries sustained during a drunk driving accident can be extraordinarily high. Often they require ongoing medical treatment, rehabilitation, and cause the victim to be unable to work.
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