Articles Posted in Drunk Driving in Massachusetts

Country music legend Lynn Anderson has been charged with drunk driving after crashing her car, according to recent news report from News 2 Nashville. Anderson had a series of chart-topping hits in the 70s and 80s including “I never promised you a rose garden.”

Police responded to a motor vehicle accident and noticed that one of the drivers was showing signs of impairment. That driver, Anderson, is alleged to have admitted drinking and driving and to having ingested prescription medication prior to getting behind the wheel. This was not the first time she was arrested on DUI charges. Anderson was arrested in 2004 after being found by police passed out in her car on the side of a road.

As our Boston drunk driving accident lawyers understand, many drivers who have caused a serious accident seem to be under the belief that they are allowed to drive after taking powerful prescription medications. This could not be farther from the truth.

Let’s first look at cases involving alcohol. As long as you are 21 years of age or older, it is completely legal to drink alcohol. It is not however, legal to drive a car after becoming intoxicated. Drunk driving is negligent driving.
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A 20-year-old student studying physical therapy at Simmons College was killed on Father’s Day while jogging along a road in Sharon. The vehicle that caused her death was driven by a man who never should have been behind the wheel because his license was suspended.

Now, the student’s father has become an advocate to press Massachusetts state lawmakers to pass a measure he hopes will help boost enforcement against derelict drivers. It would require the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue a notification to local police when a person’s license is suspended. This would allow officers to watch for that person’s vehicle, in the event he or she decides to venture out anyway.

Testifying before the state’s Transportation Committee recently, the father spoke of his family’s struggle to make it through another day without his daughter. He said a driver operating a suspended or revoked vehicle is “an immediate threat to public safety,” warranting a higher degree of action.

Another reason our Boston drunk driving accident lawyers believe such action is so vitally important has to do with the fact that if a driver’s license has been revoked, he or she is not covered by insurance. That means if the driver wrecks and causes serious injury or death, insurance options are severely limited. An injured person could seek compensation directly from the driver. Under certain circumstances, there may be grounds to pursue liability action against the owner of the vehicle (if different from the driver) or from a bar or restaurant that served alcohol to the driver just prior to the crash. But there are many variables in such instances.
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A texting drunk driver who killed two 17-year-old high school students and seriously injured two others in New York in December 2012 is being sued for wrongful death, in lawsuits filed just shy of one year of his criminal conviction.

In the midst of serving a 5- to-15-year sentence in prison, the driver is now accused of negligence resulting in the death of the two teens. Also named in the lawsuit are the drivers’ mother, the restaurant that served him alcohol just prior to the crash and two employees of that restaurant. Liability on the part of the establishment falls under what’s known as a “dram shop law,” and the one in Massachusetts is quite strong.

Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 138, 69 holds that no alcoholic beverages should be sold to an intoxicated person by a licensed establishment. Further, any personal injury or negligence action arising out of this or illegal service of alcohol to a minor must be filed in the state’s superior court. Our Boston drunk driving injury lawyers are committed to ensuring all persons and entities responsible for serious injuries and deaths resulting from impaired driving are held accountable. We know how important it is for parents and other loved ones to pursue every available avenue of justice.
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A Methuen police officer has been arrested for the death of a Lowell man in an alcohol-related car crash, according to a recent article from CBS Local Boston. The police officer was charged with Operating Under the Influence (OUI) of intoxicating liquor or drugs, vehicular homicide involving alcohol, and open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, and he was given a citation for a marked lanes violation and negligent operation.

As your Boston drunk driving accident lawyer knows, OUI is the name for a DUI charge in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Witnesses say that the defendant was in an SUV traveling west on Riverside Drive in Lowell at just after midnight, when he crossed over the centerline and hit the victim’s car. The victim was trapped in the car, and firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to get the victim out of the wrecked vehicle. The victim was then taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The victim was out that night to pick up his sister from work. She was taken to the hospital after the crash and was reported to be in stable condition. The extent of her injuries has not been released.

The defendant is being held on $500,000 cash bail, due to the allegations in this case and the fact that he was arrested last year for drunk driving as well. In that case, he refused to take a breathalyzer and lost his driver’s license for six months.
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Our Boston drunk driving accident lawyers understand the devastating effects a drunk driving collision can have on victims.

Fox59 is reporting that an Indiana woman, 22-years-old, was charged with multiple felony counts involving an alcohol-related car accident that left 2 dead and others injured. A 50-year-old man was killed, along with a 28-year-old female passenger. A 49-year-old female victim suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Court papers indicate that the defendant’s car allegedly swerved into oncoming traffic and hit another car. Witnesses say the impact was so great that the road surface was gouged.

After the accident, during interrogation, the defendant told police that she went out for a drive to clear her head after having a fight with her boyfriend. She admitted to authorities that she had four shots of alcohol and half a beer. At the time of her arrest, her blood alcohol concentration was .10 grams per 100 millimeters of blood. The legal limit in every state including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is .08, so the defendant was allegedly over the legal limit.
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Our Boston drunk driving accident lawyers know that an alcohol-related crash can result in significant property damage in addition to personal injury.

According to a recent story from WBZ, an alleged drunk driver lost control of his car and crashed into several parked cars and a home in Saugus, Massachusetts. There were three occupants in the house who were amazingly not seriously injured.

Witnesses reported the suspect’s vehicle and a pickup truck belonging to the homeowners slammed into the side of the home. The pickup truck was parked in the driveway when the crash pushed it though the wall into the dining room – where they had been sitting just minutes before the crash.
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According to a recent article in TMZ, the mother of professional wrestler/actor Dwyane Johnson (“The Rock”) was hit head-on by a driver alleged to be drunk.

Witnesses told police Rock’s mother and another family member were driving home from a fundraiser in her 2012 Escalade when another driver slammed into their vehicle. Her sport utility vehicle was totaled. She was taken to a local hospital, along with the other occupant in the car. Family members are saying that she was kept in the hospital for three days until she was medically-cleared for release.

Boston drunk driving accident lawyersknow, alcohol-related crashes often present different issues than traditional car accident cases. One of the major differences is that an alleged drunk driver will also likely be charged with one or more crimes, including Operating Under the Influence (OUI), as the charge is called in Massachusetts.
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Our Boston drunk driving accident lawyers know many victims will need to find a way to recover their losses even if the at-fault driver was uninsured. One of the ways you may be able to accomplish this is through Uninsured Motorist Coverage.

According to a recent story in the Daily News, an alleged drunk driver hit two cars, causing a fatal traffic accident. One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy who was behind the wheel of one of the cars that the defendant hit. The boy died from a result of the injuries he sustained in this alcohol-related car crash.
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According to a recent article from the Boston Globe, a Worcester man was arrested for his 11th drunk driving offense. As your Boston drunk driving accident lawyer can explain, the charge is officially known as Operating Under the Influence (OUI) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Police spotted the man who was allegedly driving well under the posted speed limit with his headlights off around 2:00 a.m. Authorities stated that they attempted to give the man a breath alcohol test (breathalyzer) but he was unable to provide a sufficient sample.

The man is alleged to have a history of OUI arrests in Massachusetts from the 1970s, five drunk driving arrests in Florida from the 1980s, and three more from Texas in the 1990s. The man had a valid license at the time of his latest arrest. Police seemed astonished that this man was issued a valid license to drive, given his history of alcohol-related driving offenses.

The reason for the Massachusetts RMV issuing the license was due to the length of time that had passed since his previous arrest and the fact that he was issued the license prior to the Massachusetts Life-Time Look Back law. Prior to this law, the RMV would look back a certain number of years to see if you had an OUI on your record, and, if the conviction was old enough to be beyond the look back period, then it would not be held against you when applying for a license. This is no longer the case in Massachusetts; now, they will look all the way back to when you were first issued a license in any state to see if you have any OUI convictions.
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Our Boston drunk driving injury attorneys know some bar owners are more responsible than others in preventing alcohol-related car crashes.

According to a recent story in the Post Crescent, a local bar owner wants credit for a reduction in alcohol-related car crashes in one Wisconsin County. The county has experienced a recent reduction in the number of drunk driving accidents and has offered several possible explanations for this downward trend.

Officials have credited increased law enforcement of drunk driving, driver education programs, stiffer sentences and fines, as well as various other reasons. A local bar owner, however, is suggesting that the recent trend is related to bar operators and employees doing their part to keep drunk drivers off the road.

The man claiming credit is the head of a local league of tavern owners. He contends that, since he and his members started their safe ride program three years ago, they have provided around 3,000 taxi rides at no charge to drunk patrons who needed help getting home. He said that nearly 50 bars and taverns support the program and contribute to it financially. He says that the last thing any tavern owner wants is for a person to leave a tavern drunk, get behind the wheel of a car, and cause an accident.
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