Auto Accidents

Drunk Driving Accidents

The reason we care so much about car accidents is that we hope to make a difference in our cases. For every car accident case we pursue, bad drivers and their insurance companies are forced to be held accountable, which promotes safer driving in the future. This idea is particularly important in car accidents involving drunk driving, texting and driving (or other cell phone use while driving), and/or drug use and driving. We take these cases very seriously, because we don’t want it to happen to the next person.

Drunk driving, or drug use, is year in year out one of the leaders in causing traffic accidents. From 2011-2015, 54% of motor vehicle related fatalities involved an impaired driver, either by drugs and/or alcohol, according to Montana crash data. Impaired driving is not only one of the leading preventable causes of the number of car accidents, but impaired driving often causes the most serious and deadly accidents. Drunk or drug driving accidents are typically severe, because the person is driving in a particularly egregious and likely fast manner.

Alcohol and drugs remove inhibitions, as well as affects motor skills and reflexes, a deadly combination. The result is a reckless driver who cannot act to prevent a crash. For instance, on a 10 year average, impaired driving contributed to 290 accidents involving injury per year, and out of those 290 a whopping 109 involved a fatality. That means that if you are involved in an accident causing injury with a drunk driver, there is a better than ⅓ chance someone will die.

We have unfortunately represented many victims of drunk and drug driving. We prosecute these cases aggressively so as to discourage this type of future behavior from the driver and their insurance company.

Texting and Driving, and otherwise Reckless Drivers

Texting and driving, or otherwise using a cell phone while driving, has soared up the list of causes for traffic accidents. Cell phones contribute to hundreds and perhaps thousands of deaths on our roads each year, according to National Highway and Safety data.

The National Safety Council estimates that 1.6 million accidents a year are in some way due to cell phone use, a truly staggering number. Click here for our Blog post on texting and driving accident statistics.

People love to text and drive, and are addicted to their phones. Furthermore, there is little done about it. Police officers are doing their best, but most of the time you cannot see a driver using a cell phone because it’s held below the window. People texting and driving are likely holding the phone in their lap or in the middle console, out of sight from onlookers.

Police simply do not have the time and resources to subpoena or investigate cell phone use in every accident, so unless the driver admits it, it goes undiscovered. We have discovered cell phone use in numerous cases where it was not discovered by law enforcement, or admitted to by the driver. We aggressively pursue cases including discovery aimed at finding out whether cell phone use was involved.

Every car accident case is different and if you are injured in an accident you should consider having an experienced advocate on your side. Call us at Duckworth Law to discuss your case, and click here to read more about steps to take when you have a personal injury claim from a car accident.