A man was recently arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after causing a deadly crash in east Las Vegas involving at least seven cars. The driver will face DUI and vehicular homicide charges, as well as civil liability from everyone injured or killed in the massive crash. Continue reading for more about the local crash and the continuing drunk driving menace in Nevada, and contact a seasoned Henderson personal injury attorney if you’ve been hurt in a drunk driving crash in Nevada.
Fatal Nevada car crash caused by suspected drunk driver
At around 7:15 a.m. on a recent Sunday morning, a Clark County police officer attempted to pull over a 2006 Mercury Montego. According to police, the 35-year-old driver was speeding out of the Paradise Park parking lot, near Tropicana Avenue and McLeod Drive. The driver refused to pull over, leading to a short police chase.
The chase ended when the driver ran a red light while heading west on Tropicana and hit the driver’s side of a 2014 GMC Terrain at the intersection of Tropicana and South Eastern Avenue. The impact flung both vehicles across the eastbound lanes of Tropicana, where they smashed into at least five cars waiting at the nearby red light. Multiple victims were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center for treatments. The GMC’s driver was among the injured, and he later died from his injuries. Police subsequently arrested the Mercury driver.
Drunk driving remains a pervasive problem on Nevada roadways
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 28 people die every day in drunk driving accidents, which equates to more than one person per hour. In 2015, there were 10,265 people across the country who were killed in drunk driving accidents. Nevada is no exception: In 2016, there were 77 recorded drunk driving deaths. Thankfully, this is a drop from the 97 drunk driving deaths in 2015, but the numbers remain disturbingly high. Nevada still has one of the highest rates of drunk driving deaths nationally in terms of deaths per member of the state’s population: In Nevada 3.3 of every 100,000 residents die annually in a drunk driving accident, as compared to the national rate of 2.8 per 100,000 residents.
If a drunk driver injures or kills someone in an accident, the victim or their family can bring a civil lawsuit for damages caused. Drunk drivers may additionally be liable for punitive damages, meaning a multiplier on the “actual” damages typically available in injury lawsuits based on the extremely reckless nature of the drunk driver’s conduct.
If you need help getting compensation after a Nevada car accident, contact a dedicated and passionate Henderson personal injury lawyer at the David Boehrer Law Firm for a no-cost consultation at 702-750-0750.