You deserve justice when injured by a negligent driver
A previous post on this blog talked about how Nevada’s legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit remains at .08. But, one of our state’s neighbors has lowered the legal limit .05. It is the first state in the country to do so.
We have talked about this on a previous post. First, .08 BAC is not some magic number in which a person instantly goes from sober to drunk. In fact, there is plenty of scientific evidence which suggests that lowering the legal limit to .05 is consistent with the reality of how alcohol affects one’s system. By the time he reaches .05 BAC, a person will have noticeable problems doing this things necessary to operate a motor vehicle safely.
Furthermore, although is true that .08 is the legal limit that applies fairly strictly in a criminal case, whether someone was a drunk driver for the purposes of a civil negligence case is an entirely different matter. If a driver injuries a pedestrian, another motorist or anyone else, and that driver’s alcohol use contributed to the accident, then the driver may owe compensation to the accident victims. In some cases, punitive damages may be a realistic possibility. This is so even if the person was not legally drunk, that is, over .08 BAC.
However, as one might be able to guess, it can be difficult to get compensation from someone who blew below .08 and thus can deny that he was legally drunk at the time of the accident. Proving such a person is responsible for the accident will take a lot of investigation , and the investigation may include accident reconstruction, analyzing toxicology reports and the like.
Our skilled and experienced attorneys are prepared to help Nevada residents who got hurt in a crash pursue compensation for their injuries. If alcohol is suspected, we can take the steps necessary to defend our client’s rights to compensation to the fullest extent of the law.