drunk driving accidents in massachusetts

March 10, 2016

Bedford Police Claim Anti-Drunk Driving Campaign a Success

Across the nation, authorities are trying everything reasonable and within their power to reduce the number of serious and sometimes fatal drunk driving accidents that occur each year. To get an idea of how serious a problem drunk driving in America is, we can look to statistics to show there were more Americans killed in drunk driving accidents than were killed in all wars in which the United States was involved.

These campaigns have different names, such as drive hammered, get nailed, or sober or slammer. A drive sober or get pulled over campaign has been used in Bedford, Massachusetts, according a recent news feature from the Bedford Patch. The most recent campaign was run from early December of last year to January 2, 2016. This time frame was obviously chosen to cover the entire holiday season, which, as statistics have shown, is one of the worst times of year in terms of serious drunk driving accidents, including fatal car crashes. Continue reading

December 15, 2015

Massachusetts Man Convicted for Fatal DUI Accident

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

A drunk driving car accident that results in a serious personal injury or a fatality is at its essence a civil personal injury lawsuit filed under a theory of negligence or wrongful death under negligence. The first element in any negligence case in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff. This means that defendant was obligated to act as a reasonable and prudent person to prevent foreseeable harm to foreseeable persons and property.

Generally speaking in our legal system, a person does not owe a duty of due care toward others unless he or she has a legal obligation, contractual obligation, or a fact-based obligation. Everyone who gets a driver’s license at the RMV in Massachusetts, or at the counterpart agency in their own states, most typically called a DMV, signs a document (usually electrically) in which they agree to abide by all traffic regulations and drive in a reasonable and prudent manner. This means everyone who has a drivers’ license has a generally duty of care toward all other drivers and pedestrians on the road. Continue reading

September 20, 2015

Report: Drunk Driving Crash Caused School Closure in New England

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Some drunk driving car accidents result in personal injury and others result in only property damage. Some of the worst car accidents result in serious personal injury and significant property damage.

According to a recent news article from CBS Boston, a mom allegedly crashed her car while she was driving with her two kids in the car. This defendant is a 32-year-old woman from Lowell, Massachusetts. Authorities alleged she was driving under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car into a utility pole. As a result of the allegedly alcohol-related car crash, her 12-year-old child is believed to have suffered a fractured or broken ankle and was taken to the hospital, along with the young victim’s seven-year-old sibling.

The utility pole was destroyed in the crash, and this caused a series of power lines to fall on the road, closing the road until much later, when emergency utility repair crews could come out and clean up the damage. The road that closed was also the only entry access into a local public school, so the school had to close as well. Continue reading

June 25, 2015

Boston 4th of July Celebrations Too Often Capped With Drunk Driving

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

All over America, people are gearing up to celebrate the July 4th holiday with family, fireworks, cookouts and, quite often, booze.

Generally, there is nothing wrong with adults imbibing in a few brews at a gathering. But there is nothing patriotic about getting behind the wheel after doing so.

Consistently, the Fourth of July has been labeled the most dangerous holiday of the year in terms of crashes.This has to do with the fact that most people are off work, usually for several days at a time, it’s summer time and people are more apt to not only drink but feel obligated to travel to more than one destination.