San Antonio Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer
Of all the bad choices people make when they get behind the wheel, choosing to drink and drive is one of the most dangerous. Drunk driving accounts for nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities and takes the lives of thousands of Americans every year. Drunk driving accidents are also the simplest to prevent: if you’ve been drinking, don’t drive. Too many people fail to heed this simple advice every day; instead, they choose to get behind the wheel and sadly cause some of the most catastrophic and fatal accidents on the road. If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one to an accident with a drunk driver, the Law Office of Israel Garcia can help you hold the driver accountable for the harm they caused and make sure you are fairly compensated for the damage done to you. Call our experienced San Antonio drunk driving accident lawyer today.
Drunk Driving Car Accident Statistics in San Antonio
The Texas Department of Transportation reports 1,484 DUI (alcohol) crashes in San Antonio in 2020. These crashes resulted in 308 injuries, including 64 serious or incapacitating injuries. Drunk driving crashes in San Antonio took the lives of 48 people in 2020, a year when bars and restaurants were closed and people stayed home more than any other year in recent history. These figures are only slightly less than in previous years. The pandemic may have changed the way people behave in nearly every area of their lives, but it didn’t stop people from drinking and driving and causing serious injury and fatal crashes.
How Alcohol Impairs Driving
The more one drinks, the more one’s driving faculties are diminished, but even long before one reaches the level of DUI (.08% blood alcohol concentration), one’s ability to drive is impaired. Just about every function needed to drive safely is impacted by alcohol. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, consuming alcohol causes all of the following effects:
- Loss of judgment
- Decline in visual functions (ability to track moving objects)
- Decline in divided attention (ability to perform two tasks at the same time)
- Loss of small-muscle control, including focusing the eyes
- Poor muscle coordination
- Exaggerated behavior
- Difficulty steering
- Reduced response to emergency driving situations
- Lack of concentration
- Short-term memory loss
- Reduced ability to control speed
- Reduced capability to process information, such as traffic signals
- Impaired perception
- Deterioration of reaction time
- Slowed thinking
- Reduced ability to maintain lane position
- Reduced ability to brake appropriately
Drunk Driving Car Accidents Are Especially Dangerous
Because alcohol affects sensory perception, muscle coordination, reflexes, reaction time, judgment, and other essential driving skills, crashes caused by drunk drivers are often much more severe than accidents involving sober drivers. Drunk drivers might be driving at dangerously high speeds and fail to comprehend they are about to wreck, so they don’t attempt to slow down or avoid or minimize the collision as other drivers would. Drunk drivers are also prone to the most dangerous driving mistakes, such as driving on the wrong side of the road or ignoring traffic signals and stop signs. Drunk driving car crashes can therefore be much more powerful and forceful than other auto accidents, causing devastating damage to other vehicles and catastrophic injury or death to the vehicle’s occupants.
How Our San Antonio Car Accident Law Firm Can Help
At the Law Office of Israel Garcia, we’ll bring in all the evidence necessary to prove the other driver’s negligence and fault in causing the accident. In a drunk driving accident, often the drunk driver is arrested and convicted of DUI. In those situations, we can use evidence of the driver’s arrest and/or conviction as strong evidence that their impaired driving caused the crash. Even if they were not arrested or convicted of DUI, we can still collect evidence of their intoxication and use it to prove fault for causing the wreck. The standard required to convict someone of a criminal offense like DUI is much higher than the legal standard needed to prove fault in a civil case, so don’t worry if the driver isn’t charged or convicted of DUI. Also, we do not need to wait until the outcome of a criminal trial to begin the process of holding the driver accountable to you and collecting compensation on your behalf.
Because the injuries that follow a drunk driving car accident are often so serious or deadly, it is essential to get the help of an experienced car accident attorney who knows how to build a strong case not only proving the driver’s fault but also demonstrating all of the ways the drunk driver’s actions have impacted the accident victim’s life. This is an area of personal injury law where our firm excels. Attorney Israel Garcia has received specialized training in several fields related to personal injury litigation and helping juries and others internalize and understand the serious impact of an accident and injury. Through his work, Israel Garcia has achieved amazing success for car accident victims, helping them get the significant compensation they need and deserve and which helps them deal with all the challenges and harm they face because of another driver’s negligence.
Contact the Law Office of Israel Garcia Today
The Law Office of Israel Garcia can help when you or a loved one has been injured or worse in an accident with a drunk driver. Call our experienced San Antonio drunk driving car accident lawyer today for a free consultation and to get started on your road to recovery.
