DWI Defense When Charged With an Involvement in an Accident

25
Feb
By:

Texas criminal defense attorneyA DWI charge is serious, but not as serious as being accused of causing an accident while driving under the influence. If you are accused of causing a collision while driving drunk, you can expect to face much more serious criminal charges with much harsher penalties.  Raising a vigorous DWI defense is absolutely essential when accused of an accident. In such cases, you can argue there is insufficient evidence of intoxication and/or insufficient evidence to prove your actions were actually the cause of the collision and any resulting injuries or deaths.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be a challenge to successfully prove your actions were not the cause of an accident.  In one recent instance, for example, a driver who was allegedly drunk ended up being convicted of 10 different charges in connection with a DWI accident which left a police officer dead.  The problem is, the driver in this case was not actually the motorist who struck the police officer. As Pix11 reports, the prosecution of this driver marked the first time an allegedly impaired motorist was charged with manslaughter offenses in an incident where he wasn’t operating his vehicle at the time the death happened.

DWI Charges for An Accidental Death When Not Driving

The driver in this particular case reportedly had a blood alcohol concentration of .13 to 14 and got into his car upon leaving a night club.  He reportedly hit a BMW and disabled the steering on the BMW, then continued on the expressway before stopping short prior to an exit and causing an off-duty police officer to hit the brakes and suffer bone fractures. The allegedly impaired driver subsequently came to a stop with his vehicle on the HOV lane of the expressway.

A police officer responded to the scene and was securing the collision scene when an SUV approached. The SUV driver reportedly slow down his own vehicle, but not enough and did not see the police officer who was securing the crash scene. The driver of the SUV struck the police officer and killed the officer. The driver who actually hit and killed the officer, however, didn’t end up getting charged with any crime. In fact, he was given immunity in exchange for agreeing to testify against the person who was reportedly drunk but whose vehicle was at rest in the HOV lane at the time the officer was killed.

The allegedly drunk driver faced multiple charges and was convicted of 10 different offenses, including manslaughter for the death of the officer. The case shows how far prosecutors are willing to go to try to secure convictions against people who are impaired, and shows juries are often eager to convict at a time when there has been extensive public advocacy on drunk driving prevention.  It is a landmark case because it could lead to attempts to hold allegedly impaired defendants accountable even for crashes which they are not the direct immediate cause of.

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