DWI Charges Issued in Deadly Charlotte Crash

A 23-year-old man in Charlotte, North Carolina has been charged in a fatal DWI crash that killed a man on July 21.

The DWI crash occurred at 1:45 AM on North Tryon Street in Charlotte. 

The Charlotte police stated that the man was driving his Dodge Challenger at high speed. He lost control and drove off the road, hitting a fence and tree.

After the impact with the tree, the car rotated into a telephone pole and flipped onto its roof.

First responders came to the scene and found the front seat passenger dead. The allegedly drunk driver was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. He has been charged with Driving While Impaired.

Our View

Drunk driving in North Carolina is a very serious offense, and even more so when drunk driving leads to the death of innocent people. 

As of this writing, the allegedly drunk driver only has been charged with DWI. But it is likely that the district attorney will be considering additional charges. Under North Carolina state law, the driver could be charged with the following crimes, depending upon circumstances:

• Felony death by vehicle
• Aggravated felony death by vehicle
• Repeat felony death by vehicle offender

Depending upon circumstances, the driver, if convicted, could receive anywhere from 15 months to 480 months in prison.

Our personal injury attorneys licensed in North Carolina wish that no one would ever drive drunk in this state, or any state, for that matter. Not only is a person dead and the driver is probably going to go to jail for years. The family of the deceased is left with the agonizing loss of a loved one.

If the family chooses to do so, they can hold the negligent party responsible for the death of their loved one in a wrongful death lawsuit. Our personal injury attorneys have been successful in obtaining large financial settlements, including this $2.4 million wrongful death settlement, for grieving families who have lost a loved one in a car or truck accident. 

Sometimes getting the maximum settlement for the family involves a lot of work and fighting the defense, whose goal it is to avoid or minimize payment. In the settlement referenced above, our lawyers brought in a grief counselor who was able to show in a report just how devastating the loss was that the family suffered. The grief counselor was a key part of the case, even though the family initially did not think they needed grief counseling.