Adults who are out with friends might decide to have a few drinks. This isn’t a huge issue — unless the adult forgets to make plans for getting home safely. When a person who has been drinking doesn’t make plans to get home without getting behind the wheel, life-threatening crashes can occur.
There is a very serious matter. In Arizona, the death rate in DUI car crashes is higher than the death rate for the entire country. Overall, the United States has a death rate of 3.3 people per 100,000 of the population. In Arizona, that rate is 3.6 people.
Drunk driving defined
In Arizona, the legal limit for blood-alcohol concentration is .08 percent. Anyone who is driving with a BAC higher than that can face criminal charges. There are some lower limits for certain classifications of people, including drivers of commercial vehicles and people who are under 21. Commercial drivers have a limit of .04 percent and people who are underage can’t have any measurable BAC.
Legal impacts of drunk driving
A person who drives drunk faces criminal and administrative penalties that can range from losing their driver’s license up to spending time in prison. On top of those penalties, they also face civil cases.
A person who is injured in a drunk driving crash has the option of seeking compensation from the drunk driver. This could include claims for damages related to missed wages, medical bills, and other impacts of the injury.
Avoiding drunk drivers
When you are driving, you should make sure that you are watching for signs that a driver has been drinking. There are some very pointed signs that this is occurring.
- Driving erratically
- Hitting objects on the side of the road
- Swerving
- Drifting from one lane to the other
- Driving the wrong way on a road
- Driving excessively fast or slow
- Braking without warning or reason
- Failing to comply with traffic flow signs and devices
- Breaking traffic laws
If you see a driver whom you think is drunk, don’t try to follow the vehicle or stop the driver. Instead, stay away if you can safely do so. You might have a passenger in your vehicle call 911 or you can pull over when it is safe to do so and contact the authorities.
No matter what you do to avoid a drunk driver, there is always a chance that you will be struck by one. In these cases, you should make sure that get medical care for your injuries and then explore your options for seeking compensation.
