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Most responsible drivers would not think twice about having two glasses of wine when out for dinner. However Members of the National Transportation Safety Board are lobbying Virginia and other states to reduce the threshold for drunk driving to 0.05 from the current national standard of 0.08. This would put the average woman who had those two glasses of wine at a blood alcohol level of .07 and in danger of receiving a DUI. When looking at the average BAC of drivers in VA who were arrested for DUI/DWI it was much higher than .08 so reducing the threshold for drunk driving may not create a change in the number of drunk driving accidents. In 2012 there were 28,719 DUI arrests in the Commonwealth of Virginia with an average BAC of 0.1397
As Virginia personal injury lawyers we have seen terrible accidents and injuries caused by drunk drivers. An even greater danger to drivers is distracted driving. Driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).1 The federal agency reports that sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent — when traveling at 55 mph — of driving the length of an entire football field while blindfolded. So dangerous in fact that texting while driving a vehicle has now replaced drinking while driving as the leading cause of accidents and deaths of teenage drivers.
In an effort to spread the message about preventing distracted driving, our Virginia Beach injury law firm has joined EndDD. EndDD stands for “End Distracted Driving.” The core mission of EndDD is to preserve the lives of drivers, both young and old, and to promote safety on a large scale through advocacy, education, and action. Our firm has made these presentations to local high schools hoping to prevent injuries and death from distracted driving through education. Our attorneys agreed to make the presentation because we understand just how dangerous distracted driving can be. Some of our clients are victims who suffered serious injuries in accidents caused by distracted drivers. We have witnessed, firsthand, the devastation that can occur from a distracted driving accident.