Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Drunk Driving Accidents > California Family Injured in Drunk Driving Accident in Bakersfield

Personal Injury Blog

California Family Injured in Drunk Driving Accident in Bakersfield

A California family returning home from a trip to Disneyland, has suffered injuries in an alcohol-related car accident.

According to Bakersfield.com, the family, consisting of six children, their father and grandmother were in their SUV and returning home from a trip to Disneyland. The SUV was on highway 99, when it was struck by a car driven by an intoxicated driver. The SUV flipped over, and the 8 occupants of the SUV were injured. The children and their father sustained minor injuries, but their grandmother was seriously injured, and was airlifted to the hospital. The motorist whose car stuck the SUV, has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

The children and their father were very lucky that they managed to escape serious injuries in the accident. An SUV rollover accident typically ends in serious injuries to the occupants of the vehicle. Rollover accidents frequently cause roof collapses, which lead to serious head injuries for the occupants inside.

This accident brings home to us how quickly an impaired driver can cause a devastating situation that ends in injuries to others. The children here didn’t deserve to have a fun-filled tip end in fear, panic, injuries and a trip to the hospital. Unfortunately, as California drunk driving accident lawyers, we see this all too often. Every year, thousands of accidents are caused by drivers who are impaired by alcohol or drug use. These accidents are typically very serious, because in most cases the drunk driver fails to even try to stop his vehicle before impact. Such collisions are high in impact and high on casualties.

In 2008, 1,029 people died in drunk driving accidents in California according to a Bakersfield car accident lawyer. These were accidents in which the intoxicated driver was driving with a blood alcohol concentration level of .08 or more. These numbers are huge, but they were a significant drop from fatality rates in 2007. That year, 1,132 people died in drunk driving accidents. In fact, drunk driving accident fatality rates have shown a marked and steady decline over the past five years. In 2006, there were 1,272 fatalities in alcohol-related car accidents in California, 1,298 in 2005, and 1,179 in 2004.

Across the country, there has been a similar drop in drunk driving fatalities. A lot of this has had to do with the efforts of law enforcement agencies, and stronger and more effective use of education and awareness campaigns. Law enforcement agencies have been very proactive in conducting awareness campaigns to make motorists aware of the risks to their safety, and the lives of others when they drive in an intoxicated condition. Local police departments have also not lagged behind. Across Southern California, Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties have invested funding in conducting mock drunk driving crashes for high school students, increasing drunk driver awareness campaigns for general motorists, and enforcing current DUI rules strongly. This has led to a lowered public tolerance to impaired driving, and consequently, lower accident fatalities.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

---