Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

In a rather interesting set of circumstances, as described in a recent article from the Framingham Patch, a restaurant owner was arrested in connection with a drunk driving car crash involving another driver. There were actually two separate drunk driving accidents where two drivers left the Framingham restaurant and crashed into local police vehicles.  One case involved an alleged drunk driver crashing his Porsche sport utility vehicle into the back of a police cruiser, and the second case involved an alleged drunk driver crashing his sedan into the rear of a police SUV.

drivingAs part of their investigation into the second crash, the police suspected the driver of being very intoxicated and charged him with operation to endanger and operation of a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol (OUI).  The police went to the last bar at which the driver was said to be drinking and attempted to obtain the video recording of the suspect consuming alcohol.
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In many ways, every drunk driving crash is senseless, because there is no reason for a person to ever get behind the wheel when intoxicated knowing that this extremely reckless behavior could result in serious personal injury or death.  However, some drunk driving accidents contain facts that are even more egregious than others.

drinksAccording to a recent news article from Fox 25 Boston, a 33-year-old defendant has been sentenced to five years in a Florida state prison in connection with the fatal 2014 drunk driving accident in which his wife was killed. The victim, his wife and mother of his children, was 31-years-old at time of her tragic death. Continue reading

In the U.S., the legal limit for a driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is 0.08 grams of ethanol per hundred milliliters of blood.  Ethanol is the chemical name for the type of alcohol that is found in alcoholic beverages.  There are other kinds of alcohol, such as isopropanol that is used for medical applications, but that can be very harmful if ingested.  That being said, there have been many cases over the years where people drank medical alcohol or even ate hand sanitizer and then drove drunk.

drunk drivingThe reason there is a national legal limit, even though that would normally be reserved to the states to decide, is because, through the efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Congress passed a national drinking age law and tied it to highway funding.  If the states do not comply, that would mean they do not get millions of dollars in federal highway money, so they are not likely to go against the federal limit. Continue reading

Many people are worried about getting arrested if they get behind the wheel of a car while drunk. However, the real danger in drunk driving is that it can and often does result in serious personal injury or death.  It is hard to fully comprehend how devastating a fatal drunk driving car crash can be to the surviving family members of the victim and others involved in the accident.

beerAccording to a recent news article from CBS Local Boston, authorities have arrested a 41-year-old man from Boston on charges of motor vehicle homicide following a deadly car crash in Attleboro, Massachusetts in which he was alleged to be driving while drunk.  He was also cited for various moving violations, including speeding, failure to use required care when stopping, and a marked lanes violation.  While these moving violations may seem trivial in comparison to allegations of motor vehicle homicide while impaired by alcohol, they are often added to assist troopers in establishing probable cause for the result and later detention at jail following the arrest. Continue reading

According to a recent story from the Boston Herald, a driver carrying approximately 20 tons of cheese was allegedly driving drunk and crashed his semi tractor-trailer on the Southeast Expressway just outside of Boston. Authorities have said the 43-year-old defendant lost control of his truck full of cheese that was being delivered to the greater Boston area from Wisconsin where it was made. The crash occurred around 1:30 a.m.

cheeseMassachusetts State Police (MSP) troopers were immediately called to the scene, and, when they arrived, they saw that the truck had smashed into a crash attenuator at high rate of speed. A crash attenuator is often placed at the end of one or more concrete Jersey barriers or metal guardrails where they form a dangerous point. Continue reading

Law enforcement officers in Massachusetts are grappling with an increasing threat on our streets: Drugged drivers.marijuana

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 10 million people over the age of 12 report driving under the influence of illicit drugs in the last year. Men are more likely culprits than women, as are drivers between the ages of 18 and 25.

Those figures were derived from 2014 survey responses. Police across the Commonwealth report there has been at 225 percent increase in drug-related Operating Under the Influence (OUI) citations over the last several years. Violations for drugged driving spiked from about 660 in 2010 to 1,540 in 2015. Continue reading

The woman behind the wheel of a speeding electric Tesla vehicle that crashed and caught fire in Indiana recently, killing her and her passenger, was far too intoxicated to drive. That’s according to a recently-released police report with toxicology tests indicating the 27-year-old driver had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.21, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08. Meanwhile, her 44-year-old passenger and the owner of the vehicle had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.17.steering wheel

Although Tesla has come under fire in recent months for its Autopilot feature, a semi-autonomous function that has been cited in a number of crashes, including at least one fatal. The concern has been that the maker of these systems over-hyped the autonomy of these systems. Such a system, if totally autonomous, could go a long way toward curbing drunk driving accidents because human error wouldn’t be a factor. However  the reality is that in these semi-autonomous systems, drivers have to be ready to take over the wheel at a moment’s notice. In the case of the driver who died in a car accident while the Autopilot feature was engaged, he reportedly had numerous social media photos of him carrying out other tasks behind the wheel while his vehicle did the heavy lifting. But when a tractor-trailer crossed in front of his path one day, the Autopilot feature failed to detect the white truck against the bright sky, and the resulting collision killed him.

In this case, officials have said there is no indication that the Autopilot feature was activated. Further, officials with Tesla say the feature would have capped the vehicle’s speed on this particular road to under 35-mph on the road where the crash happened.  Continue reading

The maker of a smartphone breathalyzer violated federal advertising rules when it promised that its products offered “government lab-grade testing” to measure consumers’ blood-alcohol concentration.drinks

The CEO of the company agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission, which alleged the firm didn’t have the proper scientific evidence to back up the claims made in its advertising.

Startup funds for the technology venture were generated as a result of the CEO’s appearance on the reality show Shark Tank, a show on ABC that seeks funding from venture capital “sharks.” The CEO drummed up $2 million in funds plus a large group of executives as part of the show. The products in question are pocket-sized devices that connect to users’ phones via the headphone jack. The promise of the products is that they will give users an indication of their blood-alcohol level – presumably before they get behind the wheel of a car or engage in some other activity. Continue reading

According to the Boston Globe, a man from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood was arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol (OUI), and this was allegedly his ninth drunk driving offense. Authorities say the man was 61-years-old at the time of his arrest, which occurred on Route 2 in Boston.

prisonA spokesperson for the Massachusetts State Police has said this defendant had eight previous convictions for drunk driving.  This is certainly more than one would expect considering a defendant such as this will have multiple concurrent suspensions on his or driver’s license. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from The Newburyport Press, a Massachusetts man was arrested on a drunk driving charge following a serious accident involving a semi tractor-trailer. The accident occurred around noon on Interstate 95.

car crashAuthorities say the 26-year-old suspect was driving when he allegedly crashed into the rear of a large tractor-tractor, causing significant damage to his own vehicle.  When he crashed his Toyota Corolla into the truck, witnesses have said he swerved to the left of it and started driving in the median. By this point, one of the wheels had been torn off the sedan, and he was driving away on the three remaining tires, leaving a huge cloud of dust and debris behind. Continue reading

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