Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

When people are drunk, they often end up eating a lot more food than they should.  This is the reason that food trucks make so much money when they set up outside bars in Boston, for example.  However, it is obviously very dangerous to go out driving to get that late night snack if you are too intoxicated to legally or safely drive a car.

The reason we say legally or safely, as opposed to just legally, is because a person can be below the legal limit of 0.08 grams of ethanol per hundred milliliters of blood and still too drunk to safety drive a car in manner that is not negligent.  For that matter, a person can be found guilty of an operating under the influence (OUI) of intoxicating liquor, even if they are below a 0.08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC).  The reason for this is because of is what is known as per se standard. Continue reading

When we hear about cases where a person is arrested for their fifth, sixth or even ninth drunk driving offense, there is a very high chance that the defendant did not possess a valid license to drive at the time of his or her most recent arrest. It is more likely than not that the he or she has multiple concurrent suspensions and cannot legally drive for many years to come, if at all.

However, according to a recent press release from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), this is not only the case for multiple repeat offenders.  Their research suggests that as many as three out of four drunk driving defendants who have had their privileges to drive revoked will continue to do so, and this is a major problem for many reasons. Continue reading

Each year, scientists are working on ways to prevent drunk driving.  It’s a serious problem that has resulted in thousands of lives lost every year.  According to a report from ABC News, a major manufacturer of tortilla chips is making a limited edition bag of chips that can detect how much a person has had to drink and if they are safe to drive home from the party.  This is mainly for people who like to get together to watch live sporting events like the Super Bowl.

The bag, officially called a party safe bag, contains a sensor and a micro-controller that is said to be capable to detect if a person has been drinking.  The way the technology works is that it is supposed to be able to determine from a person’s breath if that person had been drinking an alcoholic beverage. If the bag detects that that person had been drinking alcohol, the logo on the bag will display a red steering wheel.  If he person is clear to drive, it will display a green circle. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from the Boston Herald, one woman was killed and another is in critical condition following a serious car crash in Methuen, Massachusetts, which is just outside of Boston.

Authorities have said the deadly crash occurred on a Saturday night going into Sunday morning, and there were multiple people in the vehicle.  The crash occurred when the car allegedly swerved off the road at a high rate of speed and crashed head-on into a utility pole.  The backseat passenger, who was 27-years-old at the time of the crash, was killed. Continue reading

According to a news report from the Boston Metro, a local company has developed a smart phone app that can tell users if they are intoxicated based upon how they are walking while using the app. The makers of the app say that it is designed to alert users when they are too drunk to get behind the wheel of a car, so as to prevent a drunk driving accident or to prevent them from getting arrested for drunk driving.

The developer of the app has said that when people drink alcohol to the point when they become intoxicated, one of the first things that happens is a lessening of inhibitions.  This is a scientific fact that has been known for a very long time.  The reason this translates into a problem in terms of drunk driving is that when a person loses his or her inhibitions, the brain is less likely to tell them that driving drunk is a bad idea. Continue reading

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we use the term drunk driving in casual conversation, but the actual criminal charge is called operation under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs (OUI).  We use OUI in Massachusetts as opposed to DUI or DWI like other states, because it does not have to be a traditional motor vehicle that the defendant is operating to get charged with an OUI.

In fact, you can get an OUI on a non-powered bicycle, a scooter, a boat, or just about any type of conveyance device, with exception of a wheelchair, since that would be highly discriminatory towards a person who is disabled and cannot walk.  Continue reading

Drunk driving is a crime.  This means that it is illegal, as opposed to civil moving violations like running a stop sign. Even though many people do not like to think of themselves as “criminals” after being arrested for operating under the influence (OUI) of intoxicating liquor or drugs, your Massachusetts Board of Probation (BOP) record, which is often called a “Bop” in courts in the Commonwealth, will say otherwise.

One of the reasons people seem to think of drunk driving more as a traffic offense than a criminal offense is because many more people drive drunk on regular basis that there are people that commit violent crimes, for example.  Basically, people tend to justify drunk driving with an everyone is doing it argument. Continue reading