A teenaged cheerleader was seriously injured in a Virginia Beach, VA, drinking and driving crash. The 18-year-old driver has been charged with DUI and illegal possession of alcohol following a crash on June 16, 2011, in which his car ended up hitting a tree alongside Revere Drive in the Salem Woods community of Virginia Beach, WAVY.com reported.
His passenger, who was a cheerleader at Salem High School, remains at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital because her injuries are so severe. Investigators said speed as well as alcohol was a factor in this crash. And neither the driver nor the passenger, were wearing a seat belt when the Buick slammed into a tree in the early hours of the morning.
Our experienced Virginia Beach-based personal injury attorneys reported on how end of school parties often fuel rates of teenage road deaths and injuries in June. Also, having represented victims of car, truck and motorcycle accidents for more than 25 years, I have seen some harrowing injury and death cases involving teen drivers who were drinking and driving or distracted drivers.
My colleagues and I have seen too many teens killed or injured in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth and surrounding Virginia cities. In fact, teenage car crashes are 10 times more likely to occur than from those involving middle aged drivers.
Although we all know that drinking alcohol and driving is wrong, fewer people are aware of the statistics which are deeply disturbing. More than 11,000 people are killed in drunk driving accidents every year in the United States, and one person dies in a drunk driving accident every 45 minutes. And the average person who is arrested for drunk driving has driven drunk almost 100 times without getting caught before they end up with a DUI conviction.
Sometimes it takes a tragedy and the needless loss of life for a drunken driver to be brought to justice. Earlier this year our Virginia personal injury attorneys reported on a Virginia Beach, VA, woman who was sentenced to five years in jail for killing a man and seriously injuring a woman in a car wreck in Virginia Beach.
We hope in this case this young woman whose life is ahead of her does not become another statistic of this worrying epidemic on our roads.
DM