A young woman was killed in the early morning hours of March 9, 2012, when the car she was riding in was ran off the road and into a ditch alongside Poca River Road in Putnam County, West Virginia (WV).
The 24-year-old driver of the car admitted he drank about 48 ounces of beer before he took the wheel. He appeared intoxicated to police officers at the scene, failed a sobriety test and has been charged with DUI resulting in death and second-offense aggravated DUI.
This type of accident is tragic on many levels. First, young woman lost her life. Second, her family is now left to pick up the pieces and perhaps faced with the difficult task of filing a wrongful death lawsuit against a young man who was at the very least an acquaintance of the young woman. Third, the life of the young man who was driving drunk has been altered forever.
While it is going to be hard, we encourage the family of the victim to meet with a compassionate, experienced West Virginia wrongful death attorney to discuss the proper course of action in this situation. This webpage maintained by a West Virginia wrongful death attorney contains a wealth of knowledge about wrongful death law that may be useful to the family and friends of the victim.
MH