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Drunk driving is one of the leading causes of car accident related serious injury, and wrongful death in New York State. Let a drunk driving accident lawyer explain what you need to do if you were hurt by a drunk driver.
To win a car accident case against a drunk driver, you are required to prove both liability and a qualifying injury. As a result, you must demonstrate that the drunk driver went through a red light, struck you from behind or otherwise failed to drive as would a reasonable driver under the same circumstances.
Proving that the drunk driver caused the accident is usually easy because drunk drivers have impaired vision, altered consciousness and slow reaction time. In fact, driving drunk is so dangerous that there have been many laws designed to prevent this behavior, as well as severe punishment for those who do.
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The law in New York does not completely prohibit drinking and driving. Instead, the law limits the amount of alcohol a person can have in their system when driving before they are legally considered impaired. The amount of permissible alcohol is not determined by the number of drinks or the type of alcohol consumed. Instead, it is measured by a standard known as blood alcohol concentration.
There are many factors that affect blood alcohol concentration including age, gender, weight, metabolism, food and the alcohol content of the drink you may be drinking. The permissible level of blood alcohol concentration is as follows:
The problem with these rules is that people don’t know when they have reached their legal limit. In fact, the more a person drinks – the more likely it is that their judgment will be too impaired to know if they have reached their legal limit.
There are devices, however, that can measure blood alcohol concentration that are commercially available. While these can detect blood alcohol concentration, they may not always be accurate. Ultimately, it is always best to simply not drink and drive at all – call a cab, an Uber/Lyft or a friend instead.
When the police respond to the scene of an accident, they are trained to determine whether a driver appears intoxicated. When a police officer suspects that a driver has been drinking or is otherwise impaired, the officer may request a field sobriety test. During this type of testing, the officer will evaluate the suspect’s eyes, speech, motor skills and, of course, breath.
An officer may also request that the driver submit to breathalyzer testing – a test that is fairly conclusive of a driver’s blood alcohol level. If the officer finds that there is probable cause to arrest the driver for driving under the influence, the driver can be arrested and prosecuted.
If you have any questions concerning an accident caused by a drunk driver, contact our experienced car accident attorneys for a free consultation by email or calling (800) 762-9300. You can also get started by simply completing one of our case intake forms.
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