#dui driver

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Brentwood: Suspected DUI Driver Takes Out Power Pole, Ends Up in Dirt Field

Brentwood: Suspected DUI Driver Takes Out Power Pole, Ends Up in Dirt Field

At 10:40 pm Saturday, the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District responded to a report of a vegetation fire at Eden Plains Road and Chestnut in unincorporated Brentwood.

Upon arrival, firefighters located a series of spot fires along three power poles with wires down and a sheared power pole.

While on scene and working to put out the vegetation fires,  a report came in of a vehicle versus a…

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Suspected DUI Driver Collides With Disabled Car, Killing One Person and Injuring Another

If you have been following this blog, you already known that driving under the influence is unfortunately one of the most common causes of car accidents, injuries and death on the road in Southern California.  Worse yet, such accidents could in most cases be avoided if drivers would drink responsibly and not drive when under the influence.  A driver under the influence is not only risking his or her own life on the road, he or she is risking the lives and well-being of other drivers on the road.  We have seen people sustain permanent injuries, lose limbs, sustain traumatic brain injuries and/or spinal chord injuries, and even lose their lives, due to drunk drivers on the road.  And while a person may sue a drunk driver for damages sustained in such an accident, including damages for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, property damage, and even wrongful death, money damages unfortunately can only go so far in returning an injured person’s life back to normal. 

This all comes to mind when considering this week’s crash on the 91 Freeway in Corona, when a man driving under the influence plowed into a disabled car on the freeway, killing the passenger in the disabled car and severely injuring the driver.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the disabled car had been stopped in one of the lanes due to an earlier accident, when the drunk driver plowed into it, causing the disabled car to burst into flames.  While the driver was able to escape the car, the passenger was not so lucky, and she died at the scene.  The drunk driver sustained minor injuries.

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Three Killed, Several Injured By DUI Driver in Redondo Beach

For a group of people attending a Christmas concert in Redondo Beach, what should have been a pleasant, cheerful night ended in utter tragedy.  As numerous people were leaving a school Christmas concert, a drunk driver drove her car directly into the crowd, killing three people and severely injuring a number of others.  Among the three killed were two elderly women from Torrance.  The third has not yet been identified.  The others who were injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

The DUI driver apparently a woman, who is also currently hospitalized for injuries sustained in the collision.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the driver was driving “north on the Pacific Coast Highway at about 8 p.m. when she drove through a red light at Vincent Street, striking members of a crowd.  To make matters worse, after plowing into the crowd, she kept driving, and went onto the wrong side of the Pacific Coast Highway, where she collided head-on with another driver.  According to reports there was one pedestrian who was being carried by her vehicle at the time she collided head-on with the other vehicle.

The DUI driver has now been arrested, and will likely be criminally charged for manslaughter and driving under the influence.  Not only will this woman have to worry about criminal conviction that will likely land her in jail: she will also have to worry about civil lawsuits that will undoubtedly arise as a result of her recklessly driving and causing severe injuries and wrongful death to people.  If she is involved in a civil suit, she will likely end up paying for the medical expenses and pain and suffering (and other damages) for all of the victims involved in the incident, as well as things like funeral and burial expenses, lost companionship, and pain and suffering for the family members of those killed in the accident.

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Family of Torrance Man Killed by DUI Driver Sues Driver’s Employer

The family of a Torrance man who was killed by a driver who was driving under the influence back in 2012 has sued the drunk driver’s employer, reports the Los Angeles Times.  The driver, Sherri Wilkins, was recently prosecuted and sentenced to 55-years-to-life in prison for causing the death of the victim, Mr. Phillip Moreno.

At the time of the accident, Wilkins was working as a substance-abuse counselor at a drug rehab center called Twin Town Treatment Center in Torrance.  While being interviewed by police right after the crash, she reported that she was “heading home from work,” though the Treatment center “denies she was working at the facility that day.”

As we have already explained on this blog, employers can be held liable for injuries caused by negligent or reckless acts of their employees if their employee’s negligent and reckless acts occurred while the employee was acting “in the scope of employment.” When courts try to determine whether an employee was acting within the “scope of employment,” they weigh a number of factors.  For example, what work was the employee hired to do? Considering the employee’s work, are there incidental acts that the employer should expect the employee to be doing? How much flexibility does the employee have in performing his duties?

In this case, the plaintiffs are arguing that the treatment center should have better monitored Wilkins because witnesses claim that during treatment sessions Wilkins often appeared to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  Therefore the treatment center could have foreseen that Wilkins would drive home from work under the influence, and endanger innocent bystanders.  The treatment center is claiming that it had no knowledge of Wilkins’ drug-addiction-relapse, and had “no cause to intrude or challenge her recovery.”  The treatment center also claims that according to time-sheet records, Wilkins was “not scheduled and did not work on the day of the fatal accident,” and that the incident occurred “well outside of our business hours.”