A 67-year-old woman local resident has died after she was recently hit by a car. Police arrested the man who hit her and charged him with a serious drunk driving offense.

It is, of course, never acceptable and always dangerous to drive while intoxicated. As our blog has discussed on many previous occasions, alcohol in even moderate quantities can make it very difficult for a driver to exercise the control and judgement necessary to operate a vehicle safely.

The interesting thing about this case is that, while the woman seems to have been crossing the street at a crosswalk, she was crossing in the face of a red light. The man who hit her actually had a green light at the time of the incident.

Police are continuing to investigate this drunk driving accident and have even asked members of the public to come forward, should they have information. However, this appears to be a situation in which both the driver and the pedestrian could have done some things better.

Particularly, since the driver was drunk, the family of the victim should not give up hope that they could be able to get compensation for the victim’s medical bills, funeral expenses, lost wages and the like. This is because Nevada has a modified comparative fault law, which means that if a jury finds the pedestrian less than 50 percent at fault, compensation would still be available.

Whether comparative fault is a viable avenue in this situation is really a question best answered by an attorney in the Reno area who has had an opportunity to review the details of this tragic case. A family could rely on this attorney for help understanding their options.

A previous post on this blog talked about how Nevada’s legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit remains at .08. But, one of our state’s neighbors has lowered the legal limit .05. It is the first state in the country to do so.

We have talked about this on a previous post. First, .08 BAC is not some magic number in which a person instantly goes from sober to drunk. In fact, there is plenty of scientific evidence which suggests that lowering the legal limit to .05 is consistent with the reality of how alcohol affects one’s system. By the time he reaches .05 BAC, a person will have noticeable problems doing this things necessary to operate a motor vehicle safely.

Furthermore, although is true that .08 is the legal limit that applies fairly strictly in a criminal case, whether someone was a drunk driver for the purposes of a civil negligence case is an entirely different matter. If a driver injuries a pedestrian, another motorist or anyone else, and that driver’s alcohol use contributed to the accident, then the driver may owe compensation to the accident victims. In some cases, punitive damages may be a realistic possibility. This is so even if the person was not legally drunk, that is, over .08 BAC.

However, as one might be able to guess, it can be difficult to get compensation from someone who blew below .08 and thus can deny that he was legally drunk at the time of the accident. Proving such a person is responsible for the accident will take a lot of investigation , and the investigation may include accident reconstruction, analyzing toxicology reports and the like.

Our skilled and experienced attorneys are prepared to help Nevada residents who got hurt in a crash pursue compensation for their injuries. If alcohol is suspected, we can take the steps necessary to defend our client’s rights to compensation to the fullest extent of the law.

A woman who was trying to cross the street in the south part of Reno has reportedly suffered a broken leg after a motorist struck her with his vehicle.

The woman was crossing the street in a crosswalk in the early evening hours of a recent weeknight. It was after dark when the motorist drove in to the crosswalk, striking the woman. The driver apparently remained at the scene and explained that he simply did not see the woman crossing the street.

Police indicated that they did not suspect that drugs or alcohol were contributing factors in this accident. They did, however, issue a ticket to the driver for failure to yield. Nevada law requires that motorists yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Under the law, the fact that it was dark out or that the pedestrian was hard to see are not excuses for failing to yield and hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

While thankfully the woman’s injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, a broken leg can be a very serious affair. In addition to the obvious costs of ongoing medical treatment, the woman may have to take some time off of work because of this injury, especially if her job requires her to move around.

Additionally, the woman has likely experienced some pain and suffering as well as emotional distress in connection with her being hit unexpectedly by a car.

This story only serves to reinforce how important it is for drivers on the streets of Reno to be on the lookout for pedestrians, especially in and around crosswalks. When drivers through inattentiveness or some other form of carelessness fail to do so, a victim may hold the driver legally accountable.

It has been in the news that one of Nevada’s neighbors will lower the so-called legal limit with respect to their drunk driving laws. Starting in the next day or two, a person in this state who gets pulled over with .05 blood alcohol content or more will face criminal drunk driving penalties.

In Nevada, the legal limit remains .08, where it has been for quite some time, since the last nationwide movement to lower the limit from .10. However, there have been some signs that this new movement to lower the legal limit further has some traction. Other states have considered the matter, and a federal agency recommends the change.

Given the economy of Nevada and other issues, one could easily see state officials wishing to wait on making such a change. However, there is definitely medical evidence that supports the position of those who wish to lower the legal limit.

For instance, according to one analysis, a person who is trying to drive a car at .05 BAC may have slowed reaction times to the point where they will not be able to respond to an urgent situation on the highway that would require them to stop, swerve or take other action. Likewise, at .05, a person may have a hard time keeping focus on other vehicles and may experience problems steering.

The lesson injured victims in the Reno area can take from this discussion is that one need not be at .08 BAC in order to show the signs of being under the influence of alcohol and, thus, a dangerous driver. Any driver whose alcohol use contributed to an accident may be liable to pay compensation to their victims as a result of a drunk driving accident.

The attorneys at our Reno, Nevada, law office recognize acutely how important it is to make sure that a victim of a spinal cord injury gets compensation for all of his losses and expenses.

Not getting full compensation for spinal cord injuries can, after all, mean that a victim years or even decades down the road finds herself in a big financial pinch because of paralysis or a related condition that she did not cause. This is one reason why going with a less experienced personal injury lawyer, or one who is a little too quick to settle cases, can ultimately leave a victim in a lurch.

While this blog has often repeated that the lifetime cost of a spinal cord injury is very high, actually estimating the exact cost is hard for a variety of reasons. For one, since spinal cord injuries are permanent, figuring out the cost means accounting for years or even decades in to the future in terms of lost income and ongoing medical and rehabilitative care. This in itself is a difficult financial calculation.

Moreover, the exact cost depends on a number of specific factors. For one, the severity and extent of the injury must be taken in to account, as does the level of education and general background of the victim. Work experience and salary history, including fringe benefits and the likes, are also important to take in to account.

Getting fair compensation after a spinal cord injury is more than a matter of proving who is responsible. Insurance companies and others may try to minimize their losses by offering a settlement that does not come close to covering a person’s long-term losses, and someone without experience may mistake such an offer as a gesture of generosity. Our office has the know-how and resources to defend against this.

As Reno residents can probably guess, handling a truck or other large commercial vehicle is a tough task. This is why commercial drivers have to get a special license that entails extra training and other legal hoops that those who are just driving ordinary passenger cars do not usually have to worry about.

Getting a commercial license also means that commercial drivers are subject to special rules that other drivers do not have to worry about.

One of these rules is a requirement that, at least in commercial vehicles, drivers not operate with a blood alcohol content of more than .04, which is the equivalent of a couple of drinks. This is a limit Nevada drivers of large trucks and other commercial vehicles must observe even though Nevada’s legal limit is otherwise .08, just like the vast majority of the states.

Since this is the law, truck drivers must follow it, and trucking companies must likewise take steps to be sure the rule is followed. However, for those who are curious, there is actually some scientific fact behind this rule. The reality is that a driver who is at .05 BAC or even at .03 BAC does not have the same ability to make quick judgements, react or focus on objects that are ahead on the road.

Even at .04 blood alcohol content, a trucker can cause a lot of damage. Even a little mistake behind the wheel can lead to a bad truck accident. These sorts of accidents can leave victims permanently injured and unable to work.

If it turns out that the accident may have been caused by a driver who was over the alcohol limit for commercial drivers, even if he or she had under .08 BAC, then victims can attempt to hold the driver accountable via a lawsuit alleging negligence.