Today we will discuss drunk driving and related civil lawsuits that can be brought – the dram shop claim.

What’s a dram shop claim? It’s a lawsuit filed against the bar that sold and served (note the two parts.) to a drunk who later drove and caused someone else to be injured. The selling and serving has to be to a drunk person or to the extent that he/she gets drunk. So the key is while intoxicated or to the point of intoxication.

I’ve never really figured out why bar owners don’t just take keys away from drunks and send them home in a cab. But hey who am I to tell them how to put me out of business.

Officer Tran has been moved from University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City to another facility.

He suffered bleeding of the brain, broken ribs, a punctured lung and other internal injuries, authorities reported earlier.

http://youtu.be/pbxR00X3uSs

Lately we’ve seen a couple of really bad injury cases involving drinking and driving. The most recent and most memorable is Officer Tran from the Des Moines PD. He’s working the Iowa State Fair crowd directing traffic and a guy comes along and plows into him nearly killing the officer and then admitting he’d been drinking. Seriously, could you make it any easier to convict you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGthxRjmgCQ

The answer to the question posed in the title is usually no, but you can be partially at fault. And for passengers if you’ve had a hand in the driver’s drinking and know he or she is drunk then you are in the eye of the law guilty of complicity. Pedestrians can be also at fault due to failing to protect them by watching where they are going. Pedestrians do have some obligation to walk in crosswalks, to not walk out in front of traffic and to pay attention (due care). But in the instance below an officer working, in this case working traffic at the Iowa State Fair, will surely not be considered at fault. What I found of interest was the driver talking after the collision and pretty much admitting the case against him. It showed a lack of appreciating the consequences that will surely be put to him.

Officer Tran from the Des Moines PD was moved to a care center this week.

Drunken Drivers Keep Police Busy
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