Articles Posted in Drunk Driving Accidents

If you handle automobile accident cases such as those that occur every week here in Maryland, it doesn’t take long before one sees a drunk driving-related injury accident. And while serious traffic collisions are not uncommon, fatal car, truck and motorcycle wrecks happen frequently in and around Baltimore, Rockville, Gaithersburg and Washington, D.C.

As Maryland personal injury attorneys and car accident lawyers, I and my staff represent individuals and families who have been adversely affected by the negligence of other drivers. Whether through inattention, carelessness or malicious motivation, innocent victims of highway or urban automobile and commercial trucking crashes can be permanently disabled or killed as a result of a traffic wreck.

As mentioned in these pages on numerous occasions, the human toll from car and truck accidents can range between mild and severe, sometimes even fatal. Not only can passengers receive painful injuries such as broken bones, compound fractures, deep lacerations and dislocated joints, internal injuries as well as closed-head and spinal cord injuries can result from medium to high-speed collisions.

Trucking-related crashes can be some of the more intense wrecks and cause serious and sometimes fatal injuries to the driver and other occupants riding in a smaller passenger car that is hit by a big rig or commercial delivery vehicle. Of course, even collisions between smaller passenger cars can have serious repercussions for the occupants of sedans, minivan and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

In particular, drunken driving accounts for a significant percentage of traffic fatalities here in Maryland and across the nation. State and local law enforcement agencies are constantly watching for intoxicated drivers, however many of these inconsiderate drivers go months or years without being involved in a serious car, truck or pedestrian accident. However, when a collision does occur, the results can be catastrophic for the occupants of either vehicle.

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Charges of drunken driving were apparently not pressed against an Anne Arundel driver who allegedly caused a fatal pedestrian-car crash in the Annapolis area on New Year’s Day, 2010. According to police reports, the driver left the scene and when he turned himself in he refused a breathalyzer test to check for blood-alcohol content (BAC). Because of that fact, police could not substantiate the man’s alleged drunkenness at the time of the traffic accident.

As Maryland injury attorneys, I and my colleagues understand the anguish that a family feels for the death of a relative at the hands of a negligent driver. Any fatal car accident is tragic, not simply because that crash may have been avoided, but also because of the great distress to the victim’s family that such an event can cause. Wrongful death suits can be one avenue for a victim’s relatives to recover damages, including those for pain and suffering that the victim may have experienced prior to his or her death.

In the case of that fatal hit-and-run accident, the Anne Arundel prosecutor’s office decided to drop the charge of drunk driving against 22-year-old Thomas Judge following the collision that killed a 40-year-old Maryland resident, Alfred Byrd as he traversed Bay Ridge Road in the early morning hours of January 1, 2010.

The defense argued that Judge was not drunk at the time of the fatal crash and that the victim himself had contributed to his own death by wearing dark clothing and apparently having used some amount of cocaine prior to the accident as he staggered across the road, according to court records. The prosecution alleged that Judge and some friends drank boilermakers during a New Year’s Eve party before going downtown around 10pm to continue celebrating at several bars along West and Main streets.

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We’ve said it before, but once again it bears repeating; causing a traffic death while driving under the influence here in Maryland or the District of Columbia is simply unforgivable and no amount of excuses or apologies can make things right again. If you don’t believe this, consider the recent sentence levied against a 25-year-old driver from Rockville, MD, who will be spending the prime of his life behind bars for the untimely drunk driving deaths of two innocent people.

As Baltimore auto, trucking and motorcycle accident attorneys providing personal injury representation to Maryland residents, there is no redeeming characteristic that trumps a fatal DWI, DUI or drug-related traffic accident that leaves another person dead or maimed for life. The seemingly harmless act of becoming drunk, turns into a jailable offense when an individual gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and essentially turns it into a deadly and random weapon.

Such was the case of Alejandro Roman, who was recently sentenced to two consecutive 10-year jail terms by a Montgomery County judge in the vehicular homicide deaths of two Maryland men. Some may argue that the defendant should have received a harsher sentence, however under Maryland law 10 years in prison is the longest sentence allowed for this kind of crime. Even so, others tend to believe that 20 years is rather strict. We’ll let history be the judge.

According to police reports, Roman was driving his Acura at nearly two times that posted speed limit last October when he struck the two pedestrians along a stretch of Rockville Pike in White Flint, MD. Police stated that the man was legally drunk at the time of the accident and that his vehicle was estimated to be traveling at 76mph in a 40mph zone.

A former sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve, Roman reportedly said that he was deeply sorry for the deaths of the two individuals. According to court records, the defendant pled guilty to both counts of vehicular manslaughter last March. Based on news reports, police apparently held Roman in custody, but following an interview the man was not initially charged with any crime.

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