What are drunk drivers doing when they cause an accident?

Drunk drivers are a menace on Virginia roads, taking innocent lives and injuries thousands of Virginians every year.  Alcohol-related crashes accounted for 7.6 percent of all crashes in Virginia last year, killing 354 people and hurting 7,000.

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) publishes their Virginia Traffic Crash Facts every year, and the data for 2008 includes information on what drunk driver’s cars were doing when they caused an accident.

What were drunk driver’s cars doing when they crashed?

1. Going straight: 4,159 vehicles (40.6%)
2. Running of the road: 3,927 (38.4%)
3. Turning left: 616 (6.0%)
4. Turning right: 399 (3.9%)
5. Other: 370 (3.6%)
6. Changing lanes: 244 (2.4%)
7. Slowing or stopping: 151 (1.5%)
8. Stopped in traffic lanes: 122 (1.2%)
9. Backing up: 119 (1.2%)
10. Passing another vehicle: 66 (0.6%)
11. Making a U-turn: 59 (0.6%)

Regardless of how an accident happens, drivers who choose to get behind the wheel after having too much to drink deserve to face justice for their actions.  No innocent victim should be hurt or killed because another person made a negligent decision.

Read more about drunk drivers, the laws that try to control them, and what Virginia is doing to curb DUI accidents in our law library.