Motor vehicle accidents of all kinds claim an enormous toll in the form of serious injury, tragic loss of life and billions of dollars in economic losses annually. If you are involved in a serious San Francisco car accident and suffer substantial injuries, it can literally turn your life upside down. Hospital bills may pile up creating stress and anxiety, which can increase your financial hardships if you are the family breadwinner. The physical and emotional challenges associated with suffering serious injuries in a San Francisco car accident can make it difficult to focus on fighting with insurance companies and resolving legal hassles.
When stress, physical challenges and financial burdens are the product of an indifferent drunk driver, it is all the more tragic. Despite the enormous measures taken to end the scourge of DUI/DWI, drunk driving remains a leading cause of fatal motor vehicle accidents in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area.
During the last 20 years, there has been significant progress in addressing the problem of drunken driving related car crashes. A combination of factors has played a role in reducing DUI auto accidents in the Bay Area and across the U.S. including:
- Use of ignition interlock devices
- Stiffer sentences for those convicted of drunk driving
- Establishment of a lower national 08% BAC standard
- Zero tolerance policies for teen drivers who use alcohol and drive
- Implementation of sobriety checkpoints and roving or saturation patrols
- Teen graduated driver’s license programs
- Public service campaigns aimed at informing drivers of the risk associated with mixing alcohol and driving
- Enactment of dram shop laws that impose liability on commercial servers and social hosts who furnish alcohol to under age drivers or those who are obviously intoxicated
While these measures and others like them have done a great deal to address the problem of drunk driving fatality accidents in San Francisco, DUI/DWI continues to claim the lives of those of all ages. Almost 11,000 people per year die in accidents involving drunk drivers throughout the United States. This means someone is killed by a drunk driver in our country every fifty minutes. In a typical year, California accounts for almost 11 percent of the total number of drunken driving related fatalities throughout the US.
Unfortunately, those who pose the greatest risk of causing the death of another driver or vehicle occupant by driving while intoxicated are often habitual drinkers. One study found that the average drunk driver climbs behind the wheel of one’s car and drives while intoxicated almost 90 times before suffering a first DUI arrest. While it is tempting to presume that serious drunk driving accidents only happen to other people, one in three people in this country will be involved in an alcohol-related collision at some point in their life.
It is not only the case that drunk driving causes a high volume of accidents, but they also account for a disproportionately high number of traffic-related fatalities. Drunk drivers often have a false sense of confidence in their own ability to operate a motor vehicle when under the influence of alcohol. This misperception regarding one’s driving ability often leads drivers who are under the influence of alcohol to exceed the speed limit. When a drunk driver increases his or her speed, the driver has less time to respond to a road hazard or curve in the road. Driver who are under the influence of alcohol may exhibit some or all of the following negative effects on their driving skills:
- Slowed reaction times
- Impaired judgment and decision-making
- Decreased coordination and motor skills
- Distorted or impaired vision
- Dizziness or equilibrium problems
- An inaccurate assessment of one’s own driving ability
It is not surprising that these sorts of negative effects associated with driving while under the influence of alcohol result in a substantial number serious DUI accidents in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. If you are injured in a motor vehicle accident with a drunk driver, the driver will generally be liable as long as you can show that the driver caused your injuries. Because committing DUI/DWI amounts to gross negligence and shows a conscious disregard for human life, judges and juries frequently award substantial punitive damage awards in these types of cases. Punitive damages are intended to punish conduct that is exceptionally despicable and discourage such conduct in the future. Many times when our experienced San Francisco DUI accident lawyers represent clients in Bay Area drunk driver accident lawsuits the punitive damage award is larger than all other forms of compensation combined.
Because San Francisco drunken driving accidents tend to result in very serious injuries, sometimes the drunk driver will not have enough insurance to cover the cost of an accident victim’s injuries and damages. However, our dedicated and experienced San Francisco DUI accident attorneys frequently develop theories of liability that permit recovery from other potential defendants, including employers, parents, vehicle owners and those who serve alcohol to the intoxicated driver.
Unfortunately, California has one of the most limited dram shop liability statutes in the country. Dram shop laws impose liability on a server of alcohol under certain conditions when the server furnishes alcohol to a driver that is later involved in a DUI car accident. In many states, a social host or business establishment may be liable for injuries to a victim of a drunk driver if the driver was served alcohol while obviously intoxicated or underage. In California, there is no dram shop liability imposed on a social host. While a business establishment like a bar or restaurant may be liable to the victim of a drunk driver under California’s dram shop law, liability only applies if the drunk driver was underage.
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Drunken driving accidents in San Francisco are particularly tragic because they are completely avoidable. Our San Francisco car accident lawyers have handled many serious car accident cases involving drunk drivers. If you are injured in a San Francisco car accident caused by a drunk driver, you may suffer catastrophic life-changing injuries. If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco drunk driving car accident, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.