Drunk drivers may think they can get away with it. But the fate of a Virginia man who was involved in a fatal crash in New York state, again shows the risks aren’t worth taking.
A man from Hopewell, VA, has been sentenced to 7-21 years in prison for causing a crash that claimed the life of Nurko Bakaran, 50, of Utica, NY, WKTV.com reported. William Daniels had pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault and aggravated DWI. He admitting to driving drunk when he hit a vehicle driven by Bakaran.
As experienced Virginia (VA) car accident injury attorneys, the thoughts of my colleagues and I are with the victims of this terrible crash. Bakaran’s wife was also seriously injured in the Easter Sunday car wreck.
We have reported on numerous wrongful death cases linked to drunk and drugged up drivers. We reported on how Ronald K. Sharpe, Jr., a gym teacher at a school in Norfolk, VA, pleaded guilty to aggravated involuntary manslaughter and other charges after a car accident on February 19, 2009, that left a woman dead and a passenger seriously injured. He was drunk and high at the time of the crash.
See this video of a DUI simulator.
A recent study conducted by a Maryland trauma center revealed that about 34 percent of motor vehicle crash drivers admitted to testing positive for “drugs only,” while only 16 percent tested positive for “alcohol only.” And these are only the people who were willing to talk about their test results, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Our firm does not defend drunk drivers. We sue them. Our goal in every DUI and DWI injury or wrongful death case is to find all relevant sources of insurance recovery and to help clients receive compensation for all types of accident-related expenses and losses, including medical bills, lost wages, permanent injuries, pain, suffering and scars. We can also sometimes bring a claim for punitive damages, a form of punishment compensation that can be brought if the drunk driver can be shown to have been grossly negligent or to have committed egregiously bad acts.
This year our client, a 9-year-old boy from Virginia Beach received a confidential settlement for an October 2009 incident in which a drunk driver charged with her second DUI offense hit the car in which he was a passenger, leaving him with a concussion, which is a form of mild traumatic brain injury.
DM