Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

The head of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles resigned this week after revelations that the department should have already suspended the commercial driver’s license of the man responsible for killing seven motorcycle riders in a horrific crash last weekend.

The car hauler he was driving collided with a group of motorcycle riders who were veterans and members of the Marine Jarheads motorcycle club enroute with their spouses to a nearby fundraiser. The defendant, a 23-year-old Springfield truck driver, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of vehicular homicide.

Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack announced the resignation of Erin Deveney, registrar of the Massachusetts RMV, effective immediately after revelations the trucker was able to keep his Massachusetts commercial operator’s license, despite a history of serious traffic infractions, including a drunk driving arrest last month in Connecticut. Even more recently,  WCVB-TV reported Tuesday, he was involved in a June 3 rollover crash on an interstate in Texas. He also was arrested for drunk driving in 2013, and had his license suspended.

Boston is among the cities with the highest number of convicted drunk drivers on the roads, according to a new study by the insurance industry.

The report by QuoteWizard found Boston has the second highest number of drivers with drunk driving convictions of any city in the United States.

While it might sound like good news, and evidence of tough enforcement, our drunk driving injury attorneys in Boston know the number of drunk driving arrests only serves to illustrate the true extent of the problem. Most people convicted of drunk driving have previously driven drunk at least 80 times.drunk driving injury

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May is graduation season and is often a time of great joy and family gatherings.

Don’t let irresponsible use of alcohol or drugs turn the season into a tragedy. graduationsafety-300x119

There are more than 100 high schools in Suffolk, Norfolk, Bristol, Plymouth and Middlesex counties. And the Boston area is home to more than 50 colleges and universities, including Boston University, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Our drunk driving injury lawyers in Boston urge parents and party hosts to take seriously the responsibility of safe hosting this graduation season. While additional liability can result from serving alcohol to those under age 21, even those hosting graduation parties for college students can face significant liability when an intoxicated guest causes injury, whether as a result of a motor-vehicle collision, assault or by other means.

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It is the most dangerous time of the year on the roads for young drivers, and alcohol is a factor in a significant number of these crashes.

From spring break until the end of graduation season, teenagers and young adults will be celebrating newfound freedoms, hitting the road with friends, and attending parties and family gatherings. Our drunk driving injury lawyers urge parents and friends to reduce the risk of tragedy by talking openly to young people about the dangers of driving intoxicated, and by being a proper role model. ambulance-300x201

And it’s not just alcohol that is cause for concern. As we’ve reported, the opioid crisis and increasingly permissive marijuana laws continue to increase the risk of a collision with a drugged driver. The Spring Break season began with an editorial in the Boston Herald that suggests drugged driving is now as serious a problem as drunk driving.

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Gov. Charlie Baker is recommending adoption of a state panel’s recommendation of a series of efforts to combat drunk driving. The measures target marijuana specifically, and would revoke a driver’s license for refusal to submit to testing when suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana.beerbottles-300x206

The commission, which included law enforcement, defense attorneys and civil rights activists, made 19 recommendations in response to passage of the 2016 ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana. Our Boston injury lawyers have written about the increasing risk of traffic collisions with intoxicated motorists under the influence of a substance other than alcohol. Such risks continue to increase because of relaxed marijuana laws and the opioid epidemic.

Recommendations include more drug-intoxication training for officers and changes aimed at better enforcement of marijuana possession and open-container laws.

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According to recent news article from CNN, Katie Arrington was involved in a fatal drunk driving collision as she was on the campaign trail to be a South Carolina representative in the U.S. House. In this accident, the alleged drunk driver hit her head-on and died as a result of the accident.  Arrington was left with serious personal injuries and spent time in the hospital.

Boston Drunk Driving Accident Authorities have alleged the 69-year-old female driver was operating her motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .153 grams of ethanol per hundred milliliters of blood. This is nearly two times the legal limit of 0.08.  The legal limit is 0.08 not only in the jurisdiction in which this alleged fatal drunk driving accident occurred, but also across the nation, including Boston. Continue reading

Most Boston drunk driving accidents involve one or more personally owned vehicle.  They also typically occur late at night or in the overnight hours after the bars close since this is the most likely time for someone to be out on the road while drunk.  While this is certainly the norm in terms of Boston drunk driving crashes, it is not the only time drunk driving accidents occur in Boston and around the nation and not every accident involves  personal vehicles.

Boston drunk Driving In some cases, we have seen drivers of vehicles, such as a semi tractor trailer or other large commercial vehicle, involved in a Massachusetts drunk driving collision.  Because of the size of these commercial vehicles,  there is so much weight that is transferred into energy in a crash that smaller vehicles and pedestrians or bike riders do not really stand a chance.  These vehicles also take a lot longer to stop than a standard passenger vehicle. Continue reading

With Memorial Day upon us it is a good time to talk about the risk of teen drunk driving accidents as we head into the summer months.

Drunk Driving Car Accident Statistics involving Fatalities in Boston

Drunk driving is not only very dangerous to the person behind the wheel, it presents a grave danger to anyone else on the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) records indicate more than 10,000 people die each year in the U.S. from alcohol-related traffic crashes.  This number means on average, one person will be killed by a drunk driver nearly every 50 minutes of every day.  Not only is this unacceptable in terms of lives lost, it results in cost to society of around $44 billion each year. There are a variety of factors which make up this cost, but the costs to the victims and their families can be astronomical in terms of  money and emotional pain.  We must remember for each Boston drunk driving accident death, there is a family who is left behind to deal with the pain and suffering. Even in cases which do not prove fatal, there can be tremendous pain and suffering and lives may be altered forever.

Boston drunk drivingIn some cases, it is the passengers in the drunk driver’s vehicle and in other cases, it is pedestrians and drivers or passengers in other vehicles. Due to the higher level of recklessness we tend to see in Boston drunk driving accidents, as compared to accidents in which defendant was acting negligent, but still sober, we tend to see much more severe personal injury.  These are all factors which can make a Boston drunk driving crash more complex from a legal perspective. Continue reading

Drunk driving collisions are among the most dangerous types of car accidents in Boston.  They tend more often to result in fatalities or serious bodily injury to one or more plaintiffs than other “typical” crashes.  While any car accident has the potential to be severe, the reason impaired driving accidents are so often catastrophic is because of the extreme reckless acts so often committed by a drunk driver. Things like wrong-way driving, red-light running and extreme speed all become more common when someone is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. When plaintiffs do survive a serious drunk driving accident, they are often left with severe and lasting injuries including, but not limited to permanent brain damage.

Boston Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer While there is no such thing as a “typical” drunk driving accident, we often see cases where drunk drivers were speeding excessively, operating with a complete disregard for the traffic laws as codified in Chapter 90 of the Massachusetts General Laws (M.G.L.), and the level of recklessness may actually be enough for the police to charge a drunk driver with assault with a dangerous weapon (his or her car) in addition to drunk driving as we can see in a recent example of a serious alleged Boston drunk driving car accident. Continue reading

Typically, a worker who is injured on the job in Boston is precluded from filing a civil personal injury lawsuit.  The reason is identified in Chapter 152, of the Massachusetts General Laws (M.G.L.), which stipulates workers’ compensation is a single-recovery system.  If a worker is an employee (as opposed to an independent contractor), and the injury occurred in the course and scope of employment, he or she must file a workers’ compensation claim to obtain recovery. drunk driver injury

However, there are limited exceptions to this preclusion. One is when injuries result on-the-job due to negligence of a third party. This person is not the employer or a co-worker or a manager. Negligence of contractors, vendors and completely separate third parties may be grounds for third-party litigation.

Because so many people drive in the course and scope of employment and because drunk driving is such a prevalent problem, we see many cases wherein workers are harmed by drunk drivers. These individuals may claim workers’ compensation coverage, and also pursue third-party litigation against the drunk driver and other responsible third parties.  Continue reading

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