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One person died in a single car crash in Florence County, South Carolina on Feb. 6. The South Carolina State Highway Patrol stated that the car driver was  charged with felony DUI. 

They added that the man’s Dodge Charger was going north on North Douglass Street in Florence County when it ran off the right side of the road and flipped.

The police stated that a passenger died as a result of the DUI crash. The other passenger and driver were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Our View

Mothers Against Drunk Driving states that every day in the US, people drive drunk 300,000 times, but only 200 or so are arrested. Also, 28 people die in car accidents each day in the US due to drunk driving. Far too many people in America drive drunk, and this is a problem that we as personal injury attorneys in Virginia and North Carolina do our best to reduce.

Our drunk driving attorneys have represented many injured clients and as well as their grieving relatives, where a drunk driving accident led to death.

In a recent Virginia DUI case, our client was walking on the sidewalk after leaving the gym, and he was hit by a drunk driver. The drunk driver actually drove up onto the sidewalk and caused our client serious lower leg injuries.

The drunk driver had a blood alcohol content of .17, which is more than double the legal limit in Virginia.

The drunk driver was only carrying $100,000 in liability coverage on her car. The question we dealt with was whether we could get more coverage for our client’s injuries on his own insurance coverage. This is known as underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage.

We told our client that obtaining more compensation from his own insurance policy would not cause his rates to go up. In Virginia, if another driver causes you personal injuries in an accident, getting uninsured motorist coverage from your policy cannot raise your premium.

In the end, our client had major leg injuries; he had to have four surgeries on his left leg. While we could have sued the driver for punitive damages, it would not have resulted in more compensation for him, given Virginia law. We were pleased however to settle this Virginia drunk driving case for $100,000. 

We hope that by suing convicted drunk drivers, we can discourage people from getting drunk and getting behind the wheel. As drunk driving attorneys, that is something we are proud to do.

 

 

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