Drunk driving is a terrible act that we unfortunately have to live with. It’s just a fact of life: some people are going to make poor decisions, and sometimes those poor decisions lead to innocent people getting hurt. When someone makes such a terrible decision — such as drunk driving — then they could be held liable for their reckless and negligent choice.
Like most things, negligence can’t really be rated on a spectrum. When judging negligent acts, there’s a gray area. For example, in a vacuum, a driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.09 is inherently less negligent than a driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.30. However, what if the driver with the 0.09 BAC injures three people in an accident while the driver with a 0.30 BAC is simply arrested during a traffic stop? Suddenly, the lines aren’t so clear.
We bring this up in light of a single car accident in northwestern Arizona. A 23-year-old man was charged with “extreme DUI” after he drove at an unsafe speed and crashed into a home and other pieces of property. The man had a blood alcohol level of 0.20. He survived the crash, but with injuries.
Had this man injured multiple people, he would certainly seem like more of a “villain.” Thankfully, he did not — though that doesn’t excuse his behavior, nor does it somehow wipe the negligence away from his decision. There is a lesson in that. All we can do when we are injured in a car accident that involved a negligent driver is consider our legal options and then prepare for life after the wreck.
azfamily.com, “Kingman man facing extreme DUI charge after crash,” Associated Press, Feb. 24, 2014