Too much celebration before driving is a voluntary choice

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The holiday season brings many things in New Jersey, including celebrations. Holiday celebrations can be a time to spend with friend and family and often include food and drinks. When holiday celebrations include alcoholic drinks, the potential for a driver to become inebriated and become involved in a car accident can and does increase. At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, a traumatic car accident happened on a parkway near New Jersey. The first driver, who is a 26-year old-female, was traveling on the parkway. Unfortunately, the female driver was driving the wrong way on the parkway, as she was traveling east in the westbound traffic. While the female driver was traveling the wrong way on the parkway, she was involved in a head-on collision with a second vehicle. The second vehicle contained a 47-year-old male driver and his wife. The head-on collision caused non-life threatening injuries to both individuals in the second vehicle. Both individuals were taken to a local hospital for the injuries they sustained during the accident. The female driver suffered from head injuries as a result of the accident and was also taken to a local hospital for medical treatment. Although the traumatic car accident is still under investigation, part of the police investigation reportedly includes a blood test of the female driver for any presence of alcohol at the time of the accident. The results of female driver's blood test may be factor in a potential future civil liability claim by the driver and passenger in the second vehicle. There are some instances in which an accident seems like an accident, but when alcohol is involved, there was a very voluntary decision to drink and then get behind the wheel. Those who suffer injuries from this decision can hold the intoxicated driver responsible for that choice to knowingly increase the potential for a car accident. Source: New Jersey Herald, "Wrong way accident closes W. Pa. I-376 for 1 hour," Dec. 24, 2012