Cincinnati Car Accident Law Blog

The 2018 holiday season has arrived. For many people, this means office Christmas parties and celebrations with family and friends. On the flip side, for people who have lost loved ones or may be separated from family, it can be a depressing time. In either situation, at an after-hours party or saddled up to a bar, there is often alcohol involved. This could later leads to drunk driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has named Thanksgiving as the deadliest holiday of the year for drivers, citing over 800 drunk driving fatalities from 2013-2017. In 2017 alone, more than 33 percent of deadly traffic accidents on a holiday weekend involved drunk driving. In Ohio, there were 26 total fatal crashes, with 5 of them involving alcohol as a related factor. While these statistics address driving over Thanksgiving weekend, the Christmas holidays are not far behind.

In driver's education classes and when reviewing the terms of your insurance, you may have heard that you must contact the police to file a police report after a car accident. While this isn't a bad piece of information for how to proceed following a car accident, the truth is that the officers arriving at the scene do not always file an accident report. In addition, conditions may prevent accident victims from filing a report. In other cases, the full extent of the damages or personal injury may not be realized until after some time has passed. Whatever the situation, one may find themselves at a disadvantage if they are lacking a police report to provide to an insurance company or court after suffering an injury resulting from a car accident.

The truth is Ohio state law only requires police to come to the scene and file a report when a car accident results in an injury that requires medical care, results in a fatality, or property damage totals more than $1,000. However, if a person involved in an accident doesn't realize their injury until hours or days after the accident and chose not to notify the authorities (or the authorities were unable to come to the scene for some reason), a report may not have been filed. While a police report is not the end-all-be-all when seeking damages for personal injury, it's important to understand the law surrounding it as well as the requirements placed on officers when filing car accident reports.

There are so many conditions or situations that could cause danger for motorists on the road today. Between distracted driving behaviors, speeding drivers and those just not paying attention - even the most average trip can cause a car accident and injuries for the occupants. When you throw intoxicated drivers in this mix, the thought of getting in the car becomes less attractive.

When intoxicated drivers are a subject of discussion, many assume that the discussion focuses on drunk drivers. While this could very well be true, the recent change in legislation in terms of medicinal marijuana use could mean more users of the drug. While those who are prescribed medicinal marijuana should know better than to get behind the wheel, not all practice this behavior. What this means is an intoxicated driver could be a drunk driver or one using drugs.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident and intoxicated driving is a factor, there could be more parties at play that at first glance. Initial inclinations are usually to blame the driver who is accused of intoxicated driving, and this very well may be true. However, there could be another party involved that could be held accountable for the driver's intoxicated driving behavior. If this is true, it would be in a person's best interest to explore how that could potentially play out.

So, what are dram shop laws? Dram shop laws allow victims of drunk driving accidents to attempt to hold bars and alcohol retailers accountable for deaths, injuries or any other damages caused by an intoxicated driver. Those who have been injured or who have suffered the loss of a loved one due to a drunk driver may have more than one party to seek damages from.