Drunk Driving Accidents in Atlanta, Georgia

How common are drunk driving accidents?

Drunk driving accidents someone every 31 minutes in the United States. Every two minutes a drunk driver injures someone, often catastrophically. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about 40 percent traffic fatalities and seven percent of the total crashes involve alcohol. Alcohol intoxication was involved in 31 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States in 2013. It is not surprising that 40 percent of all fatal DUI crashes occur on weekend evenings.

What age and gender are most common among drunk drivers?

About 79% of fatal drunk driving accidents involve drivers under 34 years old, about 73 percent of whom are male.

What is the difference between a lawsuit against a drunk driver and a criminal prosecution for Driving Under the Influence?

When a driver chooses to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and causes a crash with resulting in injuries or death, the victims of the car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, or pedestrian accident may sue for monetary damages for his or her injuries in a civil case. That is entirely separate from any criminal prosecution of the drunk driver.

Are past DUI convictions admissible in evidence for punitive damages in a lawsuit against a drunk driver?

In Georgia, attorneys may introduce evidence of prior incidents of drunk driving in the punitive damages of a trial after the jury has already decided liability and compensatory damages such as medical expense, income loss and physical and mental pain and suffering.

What is the importance of understanding insurance issues in a lawsuit against a drunk driver?

Effective representation of clients in drunk driving accident cases requires careful analysis of liability insurance, uninsured / underinsured motorist insurance and medical lien issues in order to efficiently obtain the optimal outcome for the client.

What are the advantages of hiring Johnson & Ward for a serious injury case against a drunk driver?

At Johnson & Ward, we have provided aggressive, effective and empathetic legal representation to victims of drunk drivers throughout Georgia. We aggressively prosecute claims against drunk drivers who cause serious injury or wrongful death.

Ken Shigley first prosecuted a drunk driver in 1977 as an Assistant District Attorney. He successfully prosecuted cases of driving under the influence (DUI) and homicide by vehicle as well as major felonies such as murder, armed robbery, rape, burglary and arson. That was all before Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was launched to raise public consciousness about drunk driving accidents. After leaving the District Attorney’s office for private law practice in his Georgia hometown, he successfully defended DUI and vehicular homicide cases as he had learned to tie the state’s witnesses in knots on the science of blood alcohol. Later, during a decade in an insurance defense law firm in Atlanta he defended the civil damage suits arising from drunk driving accidents.

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[1] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/809767

[2] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812102