Any car accident might produce serious injury, but a drunk driving accident can be especially destructive. Drunk drivers may travel at high speeds, ignore traffic signals, drive on the wrong side of the road, and cause deadly collisions. Perhaps for that reason, Boston car owners may face charges if they intentionally give the keys to someone who is drunk — even if they aren’t in the car.

A recent court decision illustrates this law. A woman faced criminal charges for giving her car keys to a friend, despite admitting that she had known her friend was drunk. Deputies stopped the friend as he tried to drive away in the car at Boston’s Pizza near I-25 and Jefferson. The woman — and owner of the car — was not even in the vehicle because she had passed out in another car in the parking lot.

According to a previous statement by a local district attorney, such people should be held as accountable for DWI as the person driving the vehicle. Although a court recently overturned the woman’s conviction, local police don’t intend to change the way they enforce the law. Instead, police will be revising how they look at the evidence needed by courts to obtain a conviction under the statute.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident because another driver was negligently driving under the influence, an attorney can advise you on how best to prepare a claim. If the crash also results in a criminal DWI charge being brought against the other driver, an attorney can determine whether any evidentiary findings in that related case might be applicable to your civil claim. An attorney can provide the strong advocacy skills and in-depth analysis that will convince a jury to award you the recovery you deserve.

Source: Previously published article on krqe.com, “DWI overturned, what it means for cops,” Alex Tomlin, June 20, 2012