An Accident with Someone Who has Been Drinking

Every year in the UK, thousands of motorists are involved in accidents with drivers who are over the legal limit for alcohol intake. Each week, around 10 people will die in the UK as a result of drink-driving, so with this in mind, it’s important to know your rights if you’re involved in an accident with someone who’s been drinking.

Needless to say, nobody should drive when they’ve been drinking and you should always be aware of the alcohol content of different drinks in case you decide to drive home after having a few. Some drinks will have a different effect on you than others and various other factors such as whether you’ve eaten, how quickly you’ve consumed alcohol and your size can all alter the effects of alcohol in your system.

Legal Limits in the UK

In the UK, there are three ways to measure whether you’ve had too much alcohol:

• 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath
• 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood
• 107 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine

For most people, the best approach is to avoid all alcohol if you’re planning to drive. Police can carry out roadside breath tests to check whether you’re over the limit and they’re lawfully able to do this with anyone they believe may be under the influence of alcohol behind the wheel.

If you are caught drink driving, you may face a one year driving band, up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 5,000. Sadly, it’s impossible to control others from drink driving and that’s why you should know your rights in case you’re involved in an accident with one of them.

Accidents and Drunk Drivers

Everyone deserves to be safe on the road and drunk drivers are taking their own lives and yours into their hands. If you’re involved in a road accident with a drunk driver, or someone you believe may have been drinking, it’s mandatory to get a breath test as soon as possible. Contact the police immediately as they will be able to help you deal with the situation by following the correct procedures. They will breath test you and the other individual involved and will of course have arranged any medical assistance or traffic assistance needed.

You should also ensure that someone is attending to witnesses, getting as much information from them as possible - this may help you later in a claim against a drunk driver. You should try to write down as soon as possible, your recollection of the events as they took place. If you are able, call your insurance when you can and let them know all the information you have.

Don’t ever admit to a drunk driver that you have insurance or any other information relating to that. Leave it up to your insurance company to handle all those details and focus on remembering what happened and ensuring you’re physically well.

Your Rights with Drunk Drivers

There are a variety of issues if you’re involved in an accident with a drunk driver, but generally if someone reads over the legal limit, you have a very good case. If a drunk driver hits your car (whether stationary or on the move), then assuming that he or she has insurance, their insurance company should cover the costs of repair or replacement for your vehicle.

Where you can run into issues and delays is if the driver who hit you doesn’t have insurance. At this point, don’t panic though. Your insurance company will deal with obtaining money from the individual involved and it is up to them to chase this up. If you have insurance to cover your own injuries that may have been sustained in the accident, they will also take care of getting money from the other party to cover your medical bills.

Always speak to your insurance company as early as possible. They will tell you if you need a solicitor and will act as a mediator between yourself and the other individuals insurance company. Ideally, you want the entire process resolved as quickly as it can be, so that you can move on from it. Being involved in an accident can be traumatic emotionally as well as physically and having it drag on for a long time can be difficult.