Imagine if the U.S. could reduce traffic fatalities by a third. With car crashes representing one of the deadliest threats to the country, virtually everybody would agree that this would be a major safety improvement.
This would happen, if we can somehow eliminate drinking and driving, according to Medical Daily. An article on the site reports that in one out of three auto accident deaths in the U.S., at least one of the drivers was legally intoxicated. In 2013, drunk driving caused 10,076 fatalities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These deaths frequently make the news, and society has generally accepted that drinking and driving is a reckless and highly dangerous activity. Nevertheless, it does not look like drunk driving is going away anytime soon. The CDC estimates that 4.2 million people admit driving legally drunk at least once in the preceding month. Fifty-eight percent said they did so once in the prior 30 days; 17 percent reported three to 10 such incidents, and a small percentage said they drive drunk every day.
So, it will be a long while before DUI car accidents are a thing of the past, if it ever happens. Nobody can guarantee that they will not get hit by a drunk driver the next time they drive somewhere, or that they won’t get seriously hurt. What victims may be able to control is what happens next. This can include personal injury litigation against the drunk driver, to obtain the compensation they deserve.