Pensacola Man Dies after Rear-End Collision

From a recent article that was published in the Pensacola News Journal on August 5, 2018. Unfortunately, another man was killed here in Escambia County, Florida. A legal point I would like to emphasize from reading this article is that the concluding sentence that “Alcohol may have been a factor in the crash according to the report. Charges are pending.”

In any car accident involving death, blood samples are usually taken. Most blood samples are then shipped to Jacksonville for their toxicology department to review. It usually takes 3-4 months before results are published. Depending on what the blood-alcohol level is of the defendant, he may or may not be charged with criminal wrongdoing such as DUI Manslaughter. Even a blood result that is somewhat less than our legal standard of 0.08 could result in manslaughter charges since everyone has about the same blood-alcohol dissipation rate, which is 0.015 per hour. If there was an accident and it took over an hour for the Highway Patrol to draw the defendant’s blood, and it came back at 0.07, then it would be quite possible that the defendant was well above the 0.08 standard at the time of the accident. This is known as retrograde extrapolation. It is often seen in criminal trials as well as civil trials.

Our firm handles all types of injuries from whiplashes to wrongful death cases. Approximately 10% of our accident victim clientele are injured due to the negligence of drunken drivers. Not only is a drunken driver exposed to normal civil damages, but punitive damages as well. Our law firm works very closely with the State Attorney’s office in exchanging information on these cases since the prosecutor will be representing the victim in relation to the defendant’s criminal charges, while our law firm will be prosecuting the defendant civilly for monetary damages. If you have any questions regarding injuries from a car wreck, you may call our Pensacola office at (850) 434-3333, our Crestview office at (850) 682-3000, or our Fort Walton office at (850) 244-7191. We now have five locations in Pensacola, Milton, Crestview, Mary Esther, and Navarre. You can visit us on the web at www.grossandschuster.com.

Read more on the news report in Pensacola News Journal.