I got mad when I just read a new police report – the other driver’s excuse for crashing into my client is that he was tired. At 8:00 o’clock in the morning. Huh?There’s no way I’m letting State Farm get out of paying my client’s damages due to this ridiculous excuse.
It reminded me of the case I just settled on Monday in which my client had been rear ended on Highway 360 in Arlington by a young man who said he fell asleep behind the wheel at 4:00 a.m. I proved that he had been out drinking all night and was able to recover a substantial sum of money for my client.
I am handling more cases involving fatigued and impaired driving, which appears to be a growing problem on our highways that is causing serious injuries and deaths.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 crashes each year can be attributed to drowsy driving alone. Those wrecks are responsible for roughly 71,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths. Fatigued drivers tend to be men, drivers with young children and shift workers.
Sleep studies have shown that being awake for 18 hours has the same ability to impair a person as somebody with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05. After 24 hours, the equivalent BAC measure is 0.10.
Texas currently doesn’t keep statistics reflecting the true scope of the problem in the state but it is obviously a problem. Texas state legislators even tried to establish a commission that would study the problem and recommend criminal laws to crack down on drowsy drivers. And I love to go after drunk drivers here.
If you have been crashed into by someone who is intoxicated, impaired, or tired — or by anyone who isn’t paying attention to other cars and trucks on the road — please call or email me. I’ll get you the money you deserve.