Posts Tagged ‘DUI Driver’

Labor Day of 2010, a young lady was struck, and later died in the hospital, as she walked by the street at night. Her sister seen the accident happen, and also watched as the driver that hit her sped away.

It took two weeks for the man to turn himself in, and was charged with vehicular homicide by recklessness and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. He also had charges of intoxication, and DUI on his previous record. The families not only have to grieve the loss of a loved one, but also now, after sentencing, have to live with the fact that the driver will only face 2 years in jail. Officials say that the young lady was walking in the street, when her family knows that wasn’t the case.

The sentences for drivers that face charges of vehicular homicide should be the same as any other homicide. The carelessness of one man cost the life of a young lady, and caused countless grief for families. Our condolences go out to her broken family. To learn more about hit and run accidents, please visit this site.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

Drunk drivers were responsible for 303 deaths on Tennessee roads in 2009 with almost 1/3rd of all DUI’s being associated with a death. Often, the death is of the drunk driver – but not always.

Does it make any difference? Most drunk drivers have serious, untreated problems that push them to drink, and in our society using a car is critical to living a normal life. Drunk drivers are a seemingly inevitable consequence of living in a (relatively) free society.

What should we do?  One thing we do is sue the drunk driver to take away their means of transportation.  It’s a good way to intervene.  Every see full grown men riding bikes in street clothes and looking slightly uncomfortable about it?  At least some of those are people who have had 1 or more DUI convictions.

Fortunately, MADD through the Tennessee State legislature passed a law requiring an ignition interlock device whenever someone has a blood alcohol level about .15%, has a minor in the car, or was involved in a collision.  A copy of the kind of order a drunk driver might get can be seen here.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville  personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Around 1 am Wednesday, October 6, a young couple was killed in a car accident around the Rivergate Mall, in Madison, TN. The accident occurred on Gallatin Road at the Alta Loma intersection. A man driving a pickup truck hit the couple’s Sebring and he has been charged with driving under the influence. The passenger of the pick up truck had minor injuries. Officials found several beer cans in the cab of the truck. The two young people in the car were pronounced dead at the scene, the two had been dating a little over a week.

Our condolences go out to the families of these two young adults. This accident could have been avoided, had this careless driver not have been behind the wheel drunk (see here for more information on drunk driving collisions in Tennessee). It is not immediately apparent how the accident occurred, other than the truck crashed into the driver side of the car. Officials have ordered blood tests on everyone involved in the accident, and more charges may be filed after the results come in. The driver of the truck was not only driving under the influence, but was behind the wheel with a revoked license. One of the victims father saw the news reports that fit the description of his daughter’s car, and sent his son, her brother, to the scene, to find that his sister was one of the deceased.

The young woman was attending Vol State for Nursing, and had a bright future ahead of her. The two young people’s lives have been cut short due to the carelessness of one drunk driver. Our condolences go out to the families of these two young adults. This accident could have been avoided, had this careless driver not have been behind the wheel drunk, and without a valid license.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

A driver of a pick up truck was driving on Bell Road in Nashville around 7:45 p.m. in early September, when he struck a pedestrian and fled the scene. The young lady he hit was heading home from Percy Priest Lake here in Nashville, when she was carelessly run over. Her sister was on the way to pick her up, and saw the accident unfold. The passenger of the pick up truck in this later returned to the scene, and told officers who the driver was, and told officers that he pled with the driver to go back after the truck hit this young woman.

It is alleged that the two people in the truck were drinking before the accident. After the accident was aired on News channels, the driver turned himself in. He was later released on bond. The young woman struck in this collision later died in a Nashville hospital.

This is another sad case of what drunk driving can do to yourself, and families. You not only can destroy your life, but another’s in seconds. The family of the 22-year-old young woman now wants to know why the man responsible was able to leave with no charges, still with his license. Drunk driving is the cause of thousands of fatalities each year, (for more information about fatalities linked to drunk driving, click here). The criminal justice system is only part of the solution to this problem, as you can see by what has happened here. For example, can we be sure that this driver isn’t driving today? Suing these kinds of drivers makes sense and sends a message that you can’t walk away by paying a fine, attending classes, and spending a few days in jail.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

I received a call from a angry woman who was upset that this blog included information from a police report involving a DUI driver who killed a woman in a Tennessee car accident on I-40 more than a year ago. The blog restated what was in the police report, including the name of the driver and the person who owned the vehicle the DUI driver was operating. In this case, the listed owner was the father of the DUI driver.

What’s the problem with that? Well, the woman was the wife of the man listed as the owner (the father of the DUI driver). She insisted that it was not her husband’s car at the time, and that he had given it to his former wife as part of their divorce. So what happened? We know that this 2 time DUI driver got access to the vehicle from someone. Why wasn’t the title changed from husband to ex-wife, or from ex-wife to son? Did the police just get it totally wrong?

State law requires that owner names on vehicle titles be changed on transfer, and taxes for the sale/transfer paid. Was someone trying to avoid paying a few dollars of tax, or was there another motive? Giving someone a car, and leaving title in your name can create problems for you, and in a case like this create problems for everyone.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Tennessee car accidents often involve DUI drivers or drivers who have been using drugs. It’s rare that they admit what they did or take responsibility.

That’s why your best choice is to hire a Tennessee attorney familiar with Tennessee automobile accident law and cases against drunk or drugged drivers.

A recent case of ours involved a client who was minding his own business on a weekday morning. He had just dropped off his daughter at school.  A young man crossed over, ran his car into my client and drove him off the road. The client’s car rolled several times.

The young man who hit him?  His story was that he had “fallen asleep”. He had started the night before and taken some Xanax that didn’t work – he met two women at a gas station who he asked for directions to an ER, they assured him he didn’t need to go to the ER, and told him they would take him home with them, give him some cocaine, and everything would be ok in the morning. The took him home. He spent the night with the two women, who gave him cocaine, and then the next morning drove him to his car. Then he fell asleep and hit my client. This was his excuse. No apology. Click here to see the real thing.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running.

No one thinks that they are going to be in a wreck. As a an attorney who specializes in representing victims of drunk drivers, I see lots of cases involving everyday people whose lives are suddenly changed by someone who should never have been on the road.  These impaired drivers are not always limited to alcohol consumption, it’s not uncommon to see alcohol use along with pills and other drugs.  A wreck that happened in June illustrates the insane, irresponsible people who are driving every day on our streets.  On  June 22, 2009 there was a single vehicle accident just after 10p.m. The driver, Samantha Johnson veered off Harding Place and hit a telephone pole. Her passenger was killed.  Ms. Johnson claimed that she had hydroplaned and lost control due to water on the road. Water may have contributed the wreck, but what happened earlier is the scary part.

Both Ms. Johnson and her boyfriend had been at his mother’s house earlier that evening, taking pills and drinking. The mother of the deceased boyfriend, had given Samantha some powerful prescription medication – Oxycontin. Apparently she thought it was ok to give someone who was drinking some of her prescription medication, and then let her and her son take off driving the streets of Nashville. Ms. Johnson claimed that her boyfriend was driving after they left his mother’s house, but he was so drunk that he had driven the wrong way on the interstate, had struck a wall, and he had hit a tree in the 100 Oaks Mall parking lot.

For those of you thinking you wouldn’t possibly run into people like this, they wrecked on a Monday night – near a mall.

Ian McCllelan, a 29 year old man from Columbia, Tennessee was driving the wrong way on I-40 near McCrory Lane. It was 2 a.m. on May 6, 2009. Mr. McClellan had been arrested twice in Alabama for driving under the influence, and had pled guilty to DUI charges in both 2006 and 2007.  Driving west bound Katie Kerr from White Bluff had no way of knowing what was coming toward her. She saw Mr. McClellan’s Jeep Cherokee with enough time to lock up her brakes and leave 40 feet of skidmarks before impact. There was no indication of braking from Mr. McClellan’s Jeep.  Ms. Kerr had her seatbelt on, and her airbag deployed. Unfortunately, it was not enough – she was declared dead at the scene.  Three hours later when Mr. McClellan was interviewed by officers at Vanderbilt University Hospital, he still smelled like alcohol. He was charged with vehicular homicide.

We sue drunk drivers. Unfortunately, the criminal system is often not enough by itself to stop people like this. Mr. McClellan had 2 DUI convictions before this happened, and had likely driven under the influence many times when he wasn’t caught. One of the real benefits of suing people like Mr. McClellan is that it can contribute to keeping him out of the driver’s seat. He will go to jail for this death, but that is cold comfort to the family of Katie Kerr.

While it is easy to blame this irresponsible drunk driver, there is more here than that. This jeep was not titled to this driver.  Did the owner know that Ian was driving his/her jeep?  Did he/she know this driver had a history of multiple DUI’s ?

DUI victims cannot rise from the grave to ask these questions, but someone should. If this were our case, the owner of this jeep would be in the hot seat for a long, long time.