Damages that the California courts allow an injured victim of a drunk driver to seek include: Entire families can be left financially and emotionally flattened. Severe skin scrapes, lacerations and puncturesīicycle accidents caused by drunk drivers can happen in an instant without any warning whatsoever.
They can require expensive medical care and extensive rehabilitation. Injuriesīecause you’re a bicyclist, you can suffer severe injuries in the event of a crash with a car. You’re all likely covered as bicyclists too. Most insurers will cover you and your family members who live with you if any of you are injured in a hit-and-run accident that was caused by a drunk driver. The fact that a drunk driver left the scene of a bicycle crash and can’t be found doesn’t end the story if you have uninsured motorist insurance. They might not even realize that they hit somebody or something. It’s not at all unusual for a drunk driver to leave the scene of an accident. That’s because there’s a different burden of proof in the civil case. That drunk driver who turned your life upside down need not be found guilty of DUI in order for you to prevail on your injury case either. Fortunately, California law allows you to proceed in the personal injury case at the same time that the DUI case is pending. Sure, certain evidence in the criminal drunk driving case can be used against the drunk driver in the civil personal injury case, but it’s still a separate case with different procedures and rules than the criminal DUI prosecution. You’ll need to retain your own legal representation, and then you’ll need to seek compensation for your damages in the civil courts. They simply don’t have jurisdiction to award damages. Should a drunk driver cause a crash that you’re injured in as a bicyclist, any damages that you suffer won’t be addressed by the DUI courts. Those chances increase exponentially in the evening. Alcohol consumption before getting behind the wheel leads to diminished cognitive abilities that increase the chances of a motorist not seeing a bicyclist. We’ve found that in many crashes involving motor vehicles and bicycles, the driver of the motor vehicle will often say that he or she either didn’t see the bike, or they didn’t see it until it was too late. Diminished driving abilitiesīeing a bicyclist and sharing the road with motorists who haven’t been drinking can be dangerous enough. If that drunk driver hits a bicyclist, the consequences can be devastating.
It’s that simple, but selfish and reckless drivers go on driving under the influence of alcohol without regard for the safety of others who are on or near the roadway. If people have been consuming alcoholic beverages, they just shouldn’t get behind the wheel. Drunken driving accidents are nearly 100 percent preventable.
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