Drunk driving accidents may seem to most in Pottsville to be open-and-shut cases. After all, as long as the allegedly drunk driver’s blood-alcohol content exceeds legal limits, most would presume that it would be difficult for him or her to avoid claiming fault for an accident. However, accident cases involving drunk drivers often are not that simple. Victims who are seeking civil damages from a drunk driver following an accident may need to collect all of the evidence available to them to help support their claims. It is in these situations were having the testimony of witnesses to a crash can be invaluable.
A recent accident in Penn Township had more than eyewitnesses; those who saw it had actual recorded footage of the event. People following a driver they believed to be drunk began to film the scene as it was unfolding on a cell phone camera. The footage shows them trying to alert the driver that he was traveling on the wrong side of the road by honking their own car horn. Almost a minute into the video, the drunk driver is shown striking a woman, who thankfully was not seriously hurt. Law enforcement officials cite the cell phone video as evidence that could be useful in a subsequent criminal trial.
Such evidence could also be beneficial in helping prove one’s case for compensation against a drunk driver. While it may difficult to remember in the immediate aftermath of a drunk driving accident, one should attempt to locate witnesses to the crash in order to support his or her claim of how events occurred. A good attorney may be able to take any information available from eyewitnesses and leverage that into a successful outcome to one’s case.
Source: WTAE Pittsburgh “Suspected drunk driving crash caught on cell phone video in Westmoreland County” Hardway, Ashlie Jan. 12, 2016