Time Magazine reported that drunk driving kills 10,000 Americans each year.
Alcohol consumption can make drivers less able to think clearly, and drive safely. Judgment and decision making are undermined.
For example there has been recent news coverage for the number of wrong-way driver crashes, on I-17 and I-10 and other State Routes in the Valley, caused by drunk drivers.
I have represented clients, including drivers, passengers, motorcyclists and bicyclists who have been innocent victims of a drunk driver, who was speeding, driving erratically, or not paying attention to the roadway. Sometimes the drunk driver doesn’t even remember driving or the crash.
Sometimes bars are negligent and overserve alcohol to their customers. I have represented clients who have been injured due to a drunk driver who was overserved by a bar.
• In one case, a Tempe bar on Mill Avenue overserved a customer who killed a motorcycle passenger. I represented the decedent’s mother in a wrongful death case against the drunk driver and the bar, this is also call a dram shop case.
• At another Tempe bar on Mill Avenue, the bar served over 14 drinks to a customer, who then drove his vehicle, and ran over my client, who was bicycling on the sidewalk. My client suffered multiple leg fractures, and permanent injuries.
• In another Scottsdale bar case, my clients’ vehicle was rearended by an overserved customer who drove 80 miles per hour on Shea Boulevard. Each client suffered brain, neck and back injuries.
Source: Time, “Why Police Aren’t Catching Drunk Drivers” by Justin Worland, December 31, 2014.