If You Are Injured in a California Drunk Driving Accident
Drunk driving accidents cause more injury than any other kind of automobile accident. According to statistics compiled by the National Highway Safety Administration, over one million people are injured every year in accidents that involve alcohol. In California alone, there were nearly 5,000 automobile accidents that involved alcohol. If you or a loved one has been injured in a Los Angeles California drunk driving accident, there are some facts about drunk driving accidents that you should know.
- Drunk driving accidents cost our country over $100 billion a year in both money and loss of quality of life.
- In California, drunk driving accidents often involve under-insured or uninsured drivers. This can make it difficult to get fair compensation for your injuries from an insurance company. An experienced California drunk driving accident attorney can help you get the money you need for your medical bills and needs.
- If you have been injured in a California drunk driving accident, you may have a right to sue the driver to recover the costs of your injuries. In addition, you may be able to sue for medical bills, lost wages and property damage. Under some circumstances, you may be able to sue for loss of quality of life.
- If a family member was killed in a drunk driving accident, you or the estate may have the right to bring a wrongful death suit against the drunk driver.
- Under certain circumstances, you may be able to sue third parties who contributed to the drunk driving accident. Those third parties may include private persons who served liquor to the driver and allowed him to leave, or bars, restaurants and other public places that served liquor to the intoxicated driver.
- In addition to those who may have served a visibly intoxicated person, there are other third parties who may be legally liable for a portion of the damages caused in a drunk driving accident. Those people include passengers in the vehicle with the drunk driver who may have aided the driver in getting drunk and police officers who had an opportunity to prevent a driver from driving drunk but did not.
Common Law Claims in Drunk Driving Accidents
A person injured in a California drunk driving accident may bring a civil suit against the drunk driver under common law, citing negligence. In order to prove a negligence claim and collect damages, the injured person must be able to prove
- that the driver had a duty to operate the car safely
- that the driver breached that duty
- that the driver’s breach of duty resulted in injury to the plaintiff
- and that the plaintiff suffered damages which are legally compensable
In many jurisdictions in California, the very fact that the driver was operating a vehicle while intoxicated is enough to prove negligence, however the plaintiff will still have to prove that the drunk driver’s actions were the cause of his injuries.
If you are injured by a drunk driver in a California car accident, you should take the following actions immediately:
- Get medical attention for yourself and others who may have been injured in the accident.
- Contact the police and request a copy of the accident report.
- Document as much as you can about the accident, including the names and contact information of any witnesses to the accident.
- Contact a lawyer who is experienced in dealing with drunk driving accidents.