It should be no surprise to any resident in Pennsylvania that driving a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol increases the chance of an accident because a person’s ability to safely operate a car and make decisions is impaired when under the influence of alcohol. Similarly, there are reasons that speed limits are set for different roads and areas as it has been proven that driving any faster raises the risk of accidents happening.
These facts, however, seem to be meaningless to many drivers who instead prefer to simply do what they want, when they want and why they want with little to no regard for anyone else. This might not be so bad if these people’s actions did not impact anyone else but that is not the case. Records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that between 28% and 30% of all vehicular fatalities statewide from 2013 to 2017 involved alcohol.
Excessive speed has been an identified factor in even more unnecessary deaths, claiming anywhere from 41% of all deaths to 46% of all automotive deaths in the same five years from 2013 to 2017. Clearly, more needs to be done to curb people’s decisions to drive drunk or speed when and where they should not if Pennsylvania residents are going to see a drop in deaths due to alcohol or speed.
If you would like to learn more about how you or your family might best seek compensation after a serious vehicle accident caused by a reckless driver, please feel free to visit the crash assistance page of our Pennsylvania personal injury website.