Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
Although drunken driving is one of the more common traffic offenses in Maryland, there are other types of impaired driving offenses that can result in potential personal injury and property damage along our roadways. As Maryland personal injury attorneys dealing in auto, truck and motorcycle accidents, we read reports every day of various kinds of road accidents here in the Baltimore area, over in Gaithersburg, out in Annapolis or across in Washington, D.C.
The fact of the matter is that there are people, even now as we write this, who are driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, prescription drugs, or even illegal and illicit substances, know in law enforcement circles as controlled dangerous substances (CDS). The point we wish to make here, is that anyone who operates a car or truck in Maryland should exercise caution when driving in traffic; an accident may only be a only one careless move away.
This is not meant to scare anyone, but only to alert those conscientious drivers to the possibility of traffic collisions that are ever-present due to less-than-thoughtful (or brazenly negligent) drivers who would place not only their life in jeopardy, but also the lives of you and your family. People who drink and drive are just one kind of negligent individual on our roads. Those who use drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, also place others in danger when taking their illegal habits out on the road. Of course, any kind of passenger car or commercial trucking accident is undesirable, not just the DWI- or DUI-related kind.
Not only ago, we read of an accident caused by a driver who may have been under the influence of alcohol, or maybe even a CDS, when the vehicle he was driving crashed into another car and critically injured a woman. According to news articles, the traffic accident took place late on a Friday evening along a stretch of Rte 40 in Cecil County. Police reports suggested that the driver who caused the accident may have been impaired by drugs at the time of the wreck.
Based on news reports, a local resident was driving west in her Hyundai passenger sedan along West Pulaski Hwy. The woman had just made a right-hand turn from Shiloh Dr. onto the highway when a Chrysler minivan, driven by a 58-year-old man, smashed into the back of the Hyundai. The police report issued by the Maryland State Police indicated that the minivan was traveling at a high rate of speed and that the driver failed to observe the woman’s vehicle on the road ahead of him.
Following the impact, the woman’s sedan ran off the road and into a culvert located on the right-hand side of the roadway causing her to be critically injured, according to reports. Meanwhile, the minivan apparently veered off into the adjacent median where it overturned; the man, who was reportedly uninjured as a result of the crash, was able to exit the overturned vehicle before medical personnel arrived.
According to information provided by the state police, the suspect was given a breath test which reportedly returned a measurement of zero-percent blood-alcohol content (BAC); because authorities apparently believed that the driver had some kind of impairment (officers reportedly found evidence of marijuana inside the suspect’s car), he was taken by officers to Union Hospital in Elkton, MD, for a more specific blood test that would reveal whether or not the man had drugs in his system.
At the time of the news article, the results of that test were still pending. Furthermore, police investigators referred the case to Cecil County State’s attorney since they had determined that, at a minimum, the man was at fault for the accident.
Woman in critical condition following U.S. 40 accident, CecilWhig.com, November 14, 2011