Enjoy The Game And The Ride Home

With football season beginning over the Memorial Day holiday it’s a good time to remind fans of the dangers of drinking and driving. As and experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney, I have reviewed a number of studies and witnessed the facts first hand, that the drinking and driving that goes on during and after college games poses a very dangerous public health threat.

If you plan to drink alcohol while rooting for their team, whether it’s a tailgate event, bar or party, you need to see that they have a sober designated driver or else face some serious criminal and civil consequences. Also keep in mind that if you throw a pre or post game party and you serve alcohol to your guests, and the guests are drunk and drive and crash and hurt or kill someone you will certainly find yourself on the receiving end of a personal injury lawsuit.

Studies show:

A 2009 University of Colorado study found that college football home games were associated with a 13 percent increase in DUI arrests in areas surrounding the stadiums.

A University of Minnesota study that involved the results of breathalyzer exams of adults after baseball and football games, found that eight percent of the fans recorded blood-alcohol content (BAC) levels above the legal limit of .08 percent, while fans under the age of 35 were nine times more likely to be legally drunk after the game than others.

These and other studies make clear that if you are going to drink you ought not get behind the wheel. In Tennessee we continue to see a tragic number of people with debilitating injuries and deaths as a result of impaired driving.

This careless disregard for human life must stop. To help ensure that happens, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and local and county police are dedicated to arresting impaired drivers wherever and whenever they find them. Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In Tennessee in 2008, 327 people were killed in crashes where the driver or motorcyclist had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drunk driver and you hope to recover all of the damages the law allows you need to consult with an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney like those at Phillip Miller & Associates. We offer a free consultation so that you can gain the information you will need to face this odyssey through the legal system.

Under The Influence

Sporting a long list of DUI convictions, a California woman knew she shouldn’t drive after she and her man friend took drunk at dinner last weekend in Knoxville, so she did the next right thing and turned the keys over to the one person with them who hadn’t had anything to drink. So far, even though she is drunk, it appears that she made the correct decision. Well, that isn’t exactly how it played out.

According to an article published on the Knoxville television station WBIR-TV website, that responsible party was a thirteen year old boy. It appears that the plan failed when the car stalled in an intersection and the Knoxville police stopped to check it out. The boy was released to another family member and the woman was charged with two misdemeanor counts, one of child endangerment and the other of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I guess, if you think about it, she did avoid another DUI conviction and a sentence of up to eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail.

Child Endangerment: Known as the Tennessee Drunk Driving Child Protection Act, there are added penalties for people who violate DUI laws when accompanied by a child under 18 years old.  There is a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 30 days, and a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000.  Both of these child-related penalties are added onto any other incarceration, penalty and fines.  If the child suffers serious bodily injury, the violation is a Class D felony, and if the child dies, it is a Class C felony of especially aggravated child endangerment.

As explained in the Tennessee Rules of The Road, driving involves multiple tasks, and the demands can change continually. To drive safely, you must maintain alertness, make decisions based on ever-changing information present in the environment and execute maneuvers based on these decisions. Drinking alcohol impairs a wide range of skills necessary for carrying out these tasks.  Fatal injuries, resulting from alcohol-related traffic crashes, represent a tremendous loss of human life.  In 2005, over 16,000 deaths nationwide (39 percent of all traffic fatalities) were alcohol related.  In Tennessee, 37 percent of all traffic fatalities (464 deaths) were alcohol-related. Examples are driving too fast, passing cars without enough clear distance and speeding around curves.  Showing off is another example of impaired judgment.

If you or a loved on is injured in a Nashville car accident by a driver under the influence of alcohol contact the Nashville car accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.