Boston Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer Blog
When people are drunk, they often end up eating a lot more food than they should. This is the reason that food trucks make so much money when they set up outside bars in Boston, for example. However, it is obviously very dangerous to go out driving to get that late night snack if you are too intoxicated to legally or safely drive a car.
The reason we say legally or safely, as opposed to just legally, is because a person can be below the legal limit of 0.08 grams of ethanol per hundred milliliters of blood and still too drunk to safety drive a car in manner that is not negligent. For that matter, a person can be found guilty of an operating under the influence (OUI) of intoxicating liquor, even if they are below a 0.08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The reason for this is because of is what is known as per se standard. If person is over the limit as demonstrated by chemical testing (blood, breath, or urine) they can automatically be found guilty without the need to show any other evidence of impairment. At a lower level, someone is still guilty of a crime or liable in connection with a Boston drunk driving accident if evidence of impaired behavior can be demonstrated in a court of law.
For this reason, even if the at-fault driver was not arrested for drunk driving, your attorney may still be able to show he or she was not sober enough to drive at the time of the accident and is therefore liable on that ground alone. Even if it can’t be established that he or she was not drunk, they can still be found negligent, just like they could in another car accident lawsuit that doesn’t involve a drunk driver. However, if a person had been drinking, and it is fairly obvious, there is a better than average chance the driver will be arrested for drunk driving.
According to a recent news article from the Falmouth Patch, a man was arrested after he allegedly crashed his car at the drive thru window at a McDonalds. Authorities have said accident occurred around midnight on Main Street when he crashed into the wall and scraped his car alongside the building as he pulled through the drive thru lane. At that point, the restaurant workers called the local police, and, when they arrived, they immediately suspected he was under the influence of alcohol and too drunk to legally drive his vehicle. After a series of standardized field sobriety tests (SFTSs) as approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the police concluded they had sufficient probable cause to find him place him under arrest for suspicion of drunk driving.
It should be noted that he has merely been accused of drunk driving, but has not been convicted of any crimes in connection with his resent arrest and is therefore presumed innocent unless and until he is found guilty in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt by judge or jury.
If you or someone you love has been injured a Boston drunk driving accident, call for a free and confidential appointment at (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Drunk Driver Crashes at Falmouth McDonald’s Drive-Thru: Police, January 8, 2017, By Jason Claffey, Falmouth Patch
More Blog Entries:
Report: Boston Named as Having Worst Drivers in US – Many Drunk Driving Accidents, July 21, 2016, Boston Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer Blog