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Two drunk driving arrests in a four-month period. A head-on DUI accident that left the driver and passenger of another car badly injured. Four and a half years in state prison for a former Virginia Beach sheriff’s deputy.

Those are the bare facts of a tale that can be — and unfortunately is — told nearly every day in every newspaper across the United States. Thirty-two fatal drunk and drugged driving accidents occur every day in this country. An alarming number of those sometimes fatal crashes involve current and former police officers and other members of public safety and emergency services agencies.

The latest local case, reported in the June 24, 2010, Virginian-Pilot, had as good an outcome as any such event can. The injured parties suffered only broken bones, and the repeat drunk driver has been taken off the streets for several years. In Virginia (VA) alone during 2008, 234 people died in automobile accidents in which one or more driver had a BAC higher than the legal limit of .08. Repeat DUI offenders accounted for many of those deaths.

After decades of representing DUI victims, my colleagues and I never stop being shocked by the physical and emotional damage drivers impaired by alcohol and drugs cause. I’m glad one more repeat drunk drivers is now no longer threatening people in Virginia Beach.

EJL

About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, Eastern Shore Virginia Injury Attorneys Blog and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.

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