Anne Ferreira, the Raynham, Massachusetts woman who drover her 1996 Toyota Camry sedan the wrong way on the Route 25 freeway on March 11, is being charged with DUI.
She crashed her sedan into a 1997 Buick LeSabre sedan. Both Ferreira and the driver of the sedan, 65-year-old New Bedford resident David McGowan, had to be pried from their motor vehicles. McGowan suffered serious injuries in the car accident and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Massachusetts State Police said that a preliminary investigation found that Ferreira was driving under the influence of alcohol.
Drunk driving is considered reckless or negligent behavior and can lead to a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit if another person is injured in a motor vehicle collision as a result.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that drunk drivers can experience problems in maintaining the proper lane position (including weaving, drifting, swerving, turning with a wide radius, difficulty braking, speeding problems), vigilance problems (including driving into opposing or crossing traffic, signaling that is inconsistent with driving actions) and judgment problems, such as deciding to turn illegally and driving the wrong way down a road.
The consequences of drunk driving on the driver, his or her passengers, people in other cars, and pedestrians can be catastrophic. Of the 442 traffic fatalities that occurred in Massachusetts in 2005, 171 of them were alcohol-related.
Woman in wrong-way charged with DUI, Wickedlocal.com, March 20, 2008
The Visual Detection of DWI motorists, NHTSA
Related Web Resources:
Impaired Driving, CDC
Massachusetts Drunk Driving Statistics, AlcoholAlert.com
Our Boston, Massachusetts personal injury lawyers have represented many victims of drunk driving cases throughout the state so that they could recover compensation for medical costs, lost wages, and other associated damages. To schedule your free consultation with a Massachusetts car accident attorney, contact Altman & Altman LLP today.