Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

When we think of drunk driving, we normally think of a drunk driver getting arrested by the police, and hopefully before the driver caused a serious alcohol-related car accident.

However, according to a recent news article in the Boston Globe, a Massachusetts state trooper has been arrested for drunk driving on more than one occasion without being terminated. This trooper’s first arrest for drunk driving was before he became a police officer at the age of 19, after crashing his car into a tree.

The next time he was arrested, he was found passed out in his car with the ignition still on and a partially full can of beer on the floor of the vehicle. This second DUI arrested occurred in 2012, when he was a Massachusetts state trooper. After this drunk driving arrest, he admitted to drinking after a softball game, then went to a local bar and drank more alcohol, went to yet another bar, and then tried to drive home but passed out on the way. Authorities reported that when the arresting officer asked him for his driver’s license, he handed over a credit card instead.
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Drunk driving car accidents can have fatal consequences for others on the roads or sidewalks, as well as the driver and passengers in the car.

According to a recent news article from ABC 40, a Springfield, Massachusetts man is expected to plead guilty next month to a fatal alcohol-related car crash. Prosecutors are reporting defendant was driving drunk last December when he hit a pickup truck.

The 71-year-old driver was killed in the car crash, as was the three-year-old daughter of defendant, who was in his car at the time of the accident.
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According to a recent news article from the Daily News, a man arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Tennessee allegedly threatened to join the terrorist group ISIS and kill the police officer as his first victim.

Authorities say that defendant pulled into a gas station with a car with a broken windshield that had obviously been in an alcohol-related car crash and vomited on his pants. Defendant allegedly smelled strongly of alcohol and could barely stand beside his vehicle as police arrived.

Defendant was asked to perform some field sobriety tests but was stopped when asked to do the walk-and-turn and one-legged-stand tests.

After being placed under arrest for Driving Under the Influence (DUI), assault, leaving the scene of accident (hit-and-run) and driving without a license, the man was seated in the back seat of the police cruiser when he allegedly made the threats to the arresting officer. As noted in the article, if he was serious about his threats, he will have wait until he is released from jail before taking any action.

Boston drunk driving injury lawyers know hit-and-run cases and cases involving drivers who are unlicensed pose more challenges than a typical alcohol-related car accident lawsuit.

The reason these cases are more complex is that, in the case of a hit-and-run, if police do not find the driver, it may be impossible to serve that person with a civil complaint and make him or her a defendant in the lawsuit. In the case of a driver who does not have a license, it is likely that he or she does not have car insurance, since auto insurance companies require proof of license and driving history before offering coverage.
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According to a recent article form CBS Sports, an NBA player, Greg Monroe, urinated on himself after being arrested for drunk driving.

Monroe was pulled over by police for driving with a headlight out. He is alleged to have told police that he is trying not be in the newspaper for drunk driving. He told police that he plays for the Detroit Pistons.

Monroe failed several field sobriety tests, according to police, and agreed to blow into a breath-testing machine. His blood alcohol content was 0.089 at the time of testing. While Monroe was arrested in Michigan, the legal limit in every state, including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

Our drunk driving injury lawyers in Massachusetts understand that a legal limit of .08 grams is not a random number. Congress established this limit after Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other interested parties and organizations led a national lobbying effort backed by vehicle crash data supported by numerous studies and research.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) performed extensive studies of drunk driving arrests with the assistance of police and several universities. The majority of the studies were conducted in the 1970s and have been updated in the years since release of the initial findings. NHTSA used the results to develop standardized methods for administering and interpreting the results of field sobriety tests.
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Our Boston attorneys who represent victims of alcohol-related car accidents understand that the findings of the criminal court may aid plaintiffs in a later civil lawsuit.

According to a recent news report from Fox Sports, UFC fighter, Nick Diaz has been arrested for drunk driving. This is the second time Diaz has been arrested for DUI in the past year.

Police reported that Diaz was pulled over on routine traffic stop, and officers suspected that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. After being arrested and taken to the police station, officers asked if he would consent to giving a breath sample. He said that he would take the test but asked if he could go to the bathroom before blowing into the breath-testing machine.

He is alleged to have attempted to induce vomiting in what is being seen as an attempt to rid his body of alcohol before taking the test. Officers told him to stop, but he kept trying to make himself vomit. Even if he succeeded in vomiting, this would have no significant effect on his breath test results, due the fact that machine measures alcohol in the air expelled from the lungs, which has nothing to do with the amount of alcohol still in the driver’s stomach.

Diaz was also charged with attempting to destroy evidence and refusal to give a breath sample.
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According to a recent article from CBS Sports, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell did not know that he could be charged with a DUI for smoking marijuana before driving.

As your Boston drunk driving car accident lawyer understands, the term “drunk driving” is not a legal term. The crime itself takes a different name depending on the relevant state code. For example, in Massachusetts, the crime of drunk driving is called Operating Under the Influence (OUI) of intoxicating liquor or drugs. Prosecutors will typically refer to it as OUI liquor or OUI drugs when speaking in court.

As noted in this article, Bell, along with fellow Steelers running back LaGarrette Blount, was arrested for possession of marijuana a few hours before a team flight to Philadelphia. Bell, the driver of the car in which the two men were riding, was charged with driving under the influence of drugs (marijuana). According to police, Bell stated that he didn’t know that was possible.

During the vehicle stop, Bell was asked if he had smoked marijuana recently and said that he smoked it about a minute ago along with other people in the car. The officer informed Bell the he would have his blood tested for the metabolites of THC and would be arrested and charged with a DUI.
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A recent story for 9 News involves a woman who may not survive a serious drunk driving car accident. Witnesses have reported that, just after midnight, the defendant was allegedly driving his vehicle on the wrong side of a divided roadway. One driver saw the vehicle approaching in time and managed to swerve out of the way.

When the victim saw the defendant approaching heading the wrong way, she also attempted to serve out of the way. Unfortunately she did not have time and was hit head-on by a suspected drunk driver.

After the crash, first responders got the victim out of the vehicle and rushed her to a local trauma center. A police spokesperson reported that the woman was immediately taken into surgery to treat her injuries, but it was not known whether she would survive the surgery, given the extreme nature of her injuries.

The at-fault driver who was alleged to have been intoxicated was also taken to the hospital to be treated for what has been described as serous but non-life-threatening injuries.

As your Boston drunk driving car accident attorney understands, driving on the wrong side of the road is a fairly common behavior exhibited while driving drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has conducted a number of studies since the 1970s to determine the best ways to identify a drunk driver. NHTSA has also used this research to develop a series of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests that officers can use to aid them in making an arrest decision.
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According to a recent article from CBS Los Angeles, a man has been charged with murder after a 19-year-old driver was killed in what appears to be an alcohol-related car accident.

The victim was driving with his girlfriend when the alleged drunk driver swerved his vehicle and crashed into them. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The man’s girlfriend was taken to the hospital. Her injuries were not life-threatening.

Authorities are reporting that the defendant fled the scene of the accident on foot and was arrested when police arrived at his home following the crash. The defendant was also charged with driving under the influence (DUI), leaving the scene of an accident (hit-and-run), and driving with a suspended license. According to this article, the defendant had previously been convicted of a DUI in which there was a personal injury.

As your Boston drunk driving lawyer understands, there is a good chance that adriver who had his license suspended for a previous DUI did not have car insurance. There is the possibility that the person borrowed the car from someone who did have insurance. If this is the case, you may be able to collect from the owner’s policy, and you may have an additional negligence claim for the owner’s negligence in lending the defendant the car.
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A recent story from 7KTVB discusses how an Idaho man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for drunk driving. The 42-year-old man was convicted of felony DUI. He is eligible for parole in 10 years but could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

While a DUI is normally a misdemeanor offense, it can be charged as a felony after the defendant has been convicted of a certain number of misdemeanor drunk driving offenses. According to court records, this defendant was sentenced for his fifth felony DUI. He had 2 misdemeanor DUIs on his criminal record as well.

As your Boston drunk driving injury lawyer can explain, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, operating under the influence (OUI) is a misdemeanor for a first and second offense and a felony for third and subsequent offenses. For misdemeanors in Suffolk County (Boston), the drunk driver could serve up to 2.5 years at the South Bay House of Corrections. For felonies, the defendant could face five years or more in a Massachusetts Correctional Institute (state prison).
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