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On March 22nd, 2018, a Tulsa man was sentenced to spend at least 15 years in prison for a 2014 DUI crash. The deadly accident occurred just east of Downtown Tulsa at approximately 2:30 in the morning.
According to law enforcement officers from the Tulsa Police Department, the accident happened because the drunk driver ran through a stop sign, colliding with an oncoming vehicle. Another victim was also severely injured in this crash.
Additional investigation into the accident confirmed the officers’ initial suspicions that the driver who ran the stop sign was intoxicated. A breath test, and a later blood sample, put his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level to be at 0.21, nearly three times the legal limit in Oklahoma. In January of 2018, the drunk driver was convicted of first degree manslaughter.
While criminal justice proceedings are an important part of any DUI accident case. We must also remember that the victims of these devastating crashes often face a very long road to recovery. Tulsa drunk driving accident attorney Charles Bryan Alred notes that “Intoxicated drivers are putting the safety of everyone on the road at risk when they get behind the wheel of car. Victims of DUI accidents and their families deserve justice for the full extent of their damages. Drunk drivers and their insurance companies must be held accountable.”
Virtually every community in the United States has dealt with the horrors of drunk driving. Though, intoxicated driving is a particularly big problem in Oklahoma. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 220 people are killed in DUI accidents in the state annually. Many more innocent victims sustain serious, sometimes life-altering injuries in these accidents.
To put the number into perspective, Oklahoma’s drunk driving accident fatality rate is nearly 60 percent higher than the national average. In recent years, Oklahoma has ranked in or near the top five worst states for DUI accidents. It is clear that much more needs to be done to reduce drunk driving and to promote safer roadways in Tulsa and throughout the state of Oklahoma.
Release ID: 323904