• 22
  • February
    2012

Accidents involving an intoxicated driver general follow a similar tragic pattern. An individual, not uncommonly one who has been cited for drunk driving in the past, leaves a bar or other place where they have been drinking and causes a car accident. Despite the overwhelming amount of information about the dangers of getting behind the wheel after drinking, this scenario is all too common.

But alcohol is not the only intoxicant that can impair a driver's ability to drive safely, putting everyone on the road at risk of serious injury or death. Illegal drugs, commonly marijuana, also impair a driver. Even legally prescribed medications can make it unsafe for a person to get behind the wheel. Police say that a driver who they believe was heavily medicated on prescription medications struck two pedestrians in Texas on Sunday night.

The driver in this pedestrian accident has been charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault. One of the pedestrians was killed and the other was injured. Apparently the driver had been discharged from the hospital earlier in the day and was still under the influence of medication.

Police have said that alcohol was not a factor but the medication likely was. The driver, after having allegedly struck two pedestrians, killing one, had not even realized that she had hit anyone. She told police that she thought she hit a pothole.

There are a wide variety of reasons why an otherwise competent person may not be fit to drive. Alcohol or illegal drug use and even severe fatigue may make it impossible for a person to operate a motor vehicle safely. Many prescription drugs carry explicit warning that the patient should not operate heavy machinery, such as an automobile after taking the medication.

Source: Austin Statesman, "Charges filed in fatal crash near UT," Jazmine Ulloa, Feb. 20, 2012