Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer - Drunk Driving

FHP: Labor Day Highway Deaths Were Down

Sandy Grinnell — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:34:00 GMT

While the total number of Florida highway deaths over the long Labor Day week-end are not yet available, the number of car crash related deaths investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol was seven this year compared to the twenty fatalities last year.

From Thursday, August 21 through Labor Day, FHP joined law enforcement officials across the country in the national Over the Limit. Under Arrest. program in an effort to curb driving while drunk. FHP also concentrated on enforcing their own Be Smart, Drive Smart Florida! campaign which is based on Florida's Move Over Law. The Move Over Law was designed to protect first responders and law enforcement officers when parked along side our streets and highways. It states that:

On a two-lane roadway, you are required to slow to a speed that is 20 miles per hour less than the posted speed limit.
If the speed limit is 20 miles per hour or less, you must slow down to five miles per hour.
If you are driving on an interstate or roadway with multiple lanes of travel in the same direction, and you approach an emergency or law enforcement vehicle parked along the roadway, you must vacate the lane closest to that vehicle as soon as it is safe to do so. If you are not able to safely move over, you must slow down to a speed of 20 MPH below the posted speed limit unless directed otherwise by a law enforcement officer.

Over Labor Day week-end alone, FHP officers arrested 136 drivers for driving while impaired and issued over 16,000 citations. While there may be some that say that our law enforcement officers should have better things to do than just issuing traffic violations, if they saved just one life from a drunk driver, I think they should be commended. As Col. John Czernis, director of the Florida Highway Patrol put it,

"We are very proud of the dedicated service and commitment to highway safety exhibited by our troopers. Doing our job makes a difference."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sandy Grinnell

Drugged Drivers are Running Rampant

Ed Normand — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:59:00 GMT

The good news is: the percentage of drunk drivers on the road is decreasing. The bad news is that drivers under the influence of drugs are more prevalent than ever. Many times drugs may impair the ability to drive safely more than alcohol use but drug impairment can be harder to detect. Now it is the return trip from the pharmacy, not happy hour, which increasingly results in a danger to motorists.

A recent governmental survey conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that there has been a steady decline in the last 30 years of the percentage of drunk drivers. The study compared the presence of drugs and alcohol in drivers since 1973 against the same data in 2007. It concluded that 2.2% of drivers in 2007 were legally intoxicated. This is a decrease from the percentage in 1973 when 7.5% of drivers were found to be legally intoxicated.

That same study revealed a growing problem with drugged driving. According to the survey “16.3 percent of nighttime weekend drivers were drug positive. The survey focused on weekend nighttime drivers and found that the drugs used most commonly by drivers were: marijuana (8.6 percent); cocaine (3.9 percent); and over-the-counter and prescription drugs (3.9 percent).” The study relied on newer drug screening techniques to detect drug use by examining the presence of drugs in a drivers system. Because drugs can be detected in the system for days or even weeks after they are used the difficulty lies in determining if the drug use resulted in impairment while driving or was merely a positive finding related to earlier drug use. Nevertheless, the surveyors concluded that drugged driving like drunk driving threatens our public health and safety.

The reduction in drunk drivers is attributed to stricter laws and penalties against drunk driving as well as greater enforcement by police and the efforts of anti drunken driving advocates such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD. Apparently these same efforts may be necessary to control the growing problem of legal and illegal drug use among drivers.

Perhaps MADD needs to add a "D” and become Mothers Against Drugged and Drunk Driving or “MADDD”.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand

Binge Drinkers and Driving Habits

Ed Normand — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:52:00 GMT

According to a study conducted at Northern Kentucky University, in contrast to binge drinkers, moderate social drinkers are much more capable of determining whether or not they are too drunk to drive. Although this seems logical, according to the study, individuals who are considered binge drinkers, which makes up 90% of the population of underage drinkers, and over 50% of drinkers age 21-29, believe they are more capable of driving after a few drinks than their moderate drinking counterparts. In sum, the binge drinkers don’t realize they are driving erratically. This tragically results in more auto accidents caused by drunk drivers.

The implications of this fall in a vast gray area of the law. The Florida legal limit for blood alcohol content (BAC) is 0.08%. This can be achieved by a little over one drink in women under 110 pounds and two drinks in men under 165 pounds in one hour period. The law can only be objective and apply a uniform standard. Therefore, whether or not a driver feels he is capable of driving is irrelevant. Either you meet the legal limit and are driving under the influence or you are not.

This study could be good in informing the public that the more often you drink, the more likely you are to feel comfortable driving. Too many people judge their driving capability on the way they feel; not on how much they drank. One suggestion is to keep portable breathalyzers at establishments that serve alcohol so drivers can test themselves, instead of guessing. This has been tried before however and binge drinkers would use the machine as a game to see how high they can get their blood alcohol level.

Drunk drivers remain a danger to all motorists and are a substantial cause of Orlando auto accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand