A Plano man was sentenced to five years of probation and 120 days in county jail on charges of intoxication manslaughter on July 10, 2012. According to a report in AllenAmerican.com, the man was convicted of the felony due to a car accident that occurred on January 2 of 2010 that ended up killing a 23-year-old woman. The woman did not die immediately of her injuries but died at the Plano Medical Center following the accident.
Drunk Driving
The driver who struck the victim had a blood-alcohol count of .10 when he was tested within two hours of the accident, according to the report. A forensic scientist testified that, given his blood-alcohol count when it was measured, the blood-alcohol count would have been somewhere between .12 and .14 at the time that the accident actually occurred. The forensic expert did go on to say, however, that it would be impossible to get an exact number.
In Texas, the legal limit for blood-alcohol content when driving is .08. The amount of alcohol that would be required to reach the number projected by the forensic expert would be between six or seven drinks, according to the article.
The Wreck
The drunk driver struck the victim at somewhere between 60 and 70 miles per hour, according to the article. The victim’s vehicle was struck from the backend, having run out of gas and sitting immobile in the right lane of the DNT. Among the evidence given was testimony that another driver could see hazard lights flashing on the victim’s vehicle and that the car was visible as he approached.
Drunken-driving crashes such as this one are all too common. When people aren’t killed, they still sometimes have very high medical costs and a lot of property damage to contend with. While drunk driving is a crime in Texas, there are options to sue drunk drivers, in addition to any criminal penalties they may face.
If you’ve been injured or had your property destroyed by a drunk driver, consider contacting a Plano car accident lawyer about the matter. In some cases, it’s possible to go after the driver for damages through a lawsuit and, if it’s successful, you may end up winning quite a bit of compensation that can help pay for the fallout of the accident and that can help your family to move on. Drunk driving laws have become much stricter than they used to be but, unfortunately, the Texas roads are still full of drunk drivers who hurt and kill people almost every day.
