Pittsburgh Personal Injury Blog

Those who get behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol place lives in danger regardless of the time of year. However, on certain occasions, it may become even more risky for someone to drive drunk. For example, when road conditions have deteriorated due to bad weather, a drunk driver may have an even higher chance of losing control of their vehicle and causing a collision. In the winter months, this is especially true in some parts of the country which see a great deal of snowfall, ice and other weather hazards.

When someone drives drunk, they may go too fast for the road conditions. For example, if ice has covered the roadway, they may disregard common sense and drive as if the roads are ice-free. Or, they might fail to realize a snow drift. Some people may even get behind the wheel when there is very little visibility and it is snowing so heavily that driving is not a good idea altogether. Essentially, alcohol and bad weather are a terrible combination and these risk factors have led to a lot of fatal accidents over the years.

Whether someone gets in their car after having a few drinks while celebrating with their friends or accidentally drinking too much at a family function, there are many reasons why reckless drivers find themselves over the legal limit while behind the wheel. However, some people drink far more often than others, such as those who struggle with alcohol addiction. Unfortunately, these people may be even more likely to drive drunk for a variety of reasons, which we will explore in this post.

People develop drinking problems for different reasons, whether they have recently gone through a hard time in life (such as a difficult divorce) or they have been drinking too much since college. Sadly, people who struggle with alcohol addiction may drive drunk because they drink frequently and have to take care of various responsibilities in life, such as driving to work, running errands or taking a child to school. Someone who is an alcoholic may even drive drunk because they need to go to the party store to pick up more alcoholic beverages.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, motorcycle crashes in the state decreased by 7.5 percent between 2017 and 2016. Rather than illustrate a steady decline, however, a look at the department’s reported figures from 2013 to 2017 shows troubling fluctuations in not just the number of crashes involving motorcycles, but also the number of fatal injury crashes involving a motorcycle. At the time of compiling this article, the Pennsylvania D.O.T. had not yet published the statistics for 2018.

But, why is it that so many drivers fail to see motorcyclists on the road? A motorcyclist who has had way too many close calls with your four-wheeled road companions may believe drivers are merely negligent and therefore at fault. However, while scientists certainly agree that drivers are at fault in a lot of these instances, negligence is not the scientific explanation they propose. Instead, scientists credit a lapse in how the brain processes information, called saccadic masking.

People are involved in various types of accidents while working, such as those which involve the use of dangerous equipment. However, motor vehicle collisions are especially concerning, and these accidents happen for all sorts of reasons, from inexperience to working too many hours and falling asleep on the road. Moreover, some job-related traffic collisions are caused by alcohol consumption, and it is important for employees, employers and everyone on the road to be aware of how prevalent this is.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 0.15 percent of transportation workers who were involved in accidents during 2008 were found to have had alcohol in their system at the time of the accident. However, this figure represents a decrease in the number of transportation accidents which involve a worker who was under the influence of alcohol in comparison to 2008, when 0.25 percent of transportation workers were found to have alcohol in their system after a wreck. The BTS states that alcohol testing devices from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are used to test millions of transportation workers across the country.