More people died on the roads of Virginia over the Labor Day holiday than in 2010, continuing a disturbing trend over the holidays. VA State Police said there were 14 fatal accidents in Virginia over the four-day period, compared to 13 in the previous two years, the Washington Post reported.
Three separate crashes in Fairfax, Fauquier, and Lancaster counties involved double fatalities, including a crash that took the life of an 8-year-old boy. Two of the fatalities, in the City of Danville and Campbell County, involved motorcyclists who were wearing motorcycle helmets, and one crash killed a pedestrian. Seven of the Labor Day holiday victims were passengers.
Over the Labor Day weekend, alcohol was a factor in at least one of the traffic fatalities and undetermined in two others, said state police. As VA personal injury attorneys who help the victims of road accidents, we are alarmed that the message about alcohol and driving doesn’t seem to be getting across. Thousands of drivers and passengers are still being killed needlessly by impaired drivers on our roads — about 33,800 people every year, according to 2009 figures according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. State police run Checkpoint Strikeforce, a DUI-prevention program that includes educational outreach and aggressive enforcement.
When passengers are hurt, they may have grounds for a lawsuit or the families of a passenger who dies could launch a wrongful death lawsuit. In a 2008 Albemarle County, VA, case, our clients who were motorcycle passengers recovered $1.5 million after they were struck and badly injured by a police car.
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