The injuries caused by an impaired driver can be deadly. Even when a victim survives his or her injuries, the effects of an accident can be life-altering and permanent. Paralysis, loss of limbs, the inability to work, and other devastating results can change a victim’s life forever.
Many victims have shared heartbreaking stories about the ways in which their lives changed after being struck by an impaired driver.
Life After Being Hit By an Impaired Driver
Survivor Jacob Smith was traveling home from a school leadership conference when an impaired driver struck the school vehicle head-on. Smith was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. He had sustained a traumatic brain injury, as well as fractures to his face, foot, and back. Doctors told him he might never walk again.
Smith overcame significant mental and physical challenges in order to learn to read and walk again. He decided to make some sort of positive change from his devastating experience. He is now an advocate for youth traffic safety, and speaks to teen drivers about important issues such as distracted driving.
Real examples
In Illinois, four college students were struck at 90 miles per hour by a drunk driver who had run a red light. One of the students suffered a massive stroke as a result of the accident. He was pronounced brain-dead four days later. One of the survivors described her recovery to WQAD New 8. She was left temporarily paralyzed and spent the next five months in physical therapy. She needed assistance in everything she did – getting in and out of her wheelchair, using the bathroom, preparing food, and other daily activities.
This forced her to finish her senior year of college from her parents’ home, rather than enjoying the well-deserved graduation festivities on campus with her friends. “Because of one selfish and irresponsible person’s decision to drink and drive,” she notes, “[the accident is] the last memory I will ever have as a student at Illinois State and of my friend Michael.”
Here in Florida, one family had to wait an entire year before seeing the arrest of the drunk driver who killed a developmentally disabled young woman, just 21 years old. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports that a drunk driver struck the side of the small sedan in which the young woman was riding with her sister and mother. The mother and sister, who were riding in the front seat, were hospitalized with minor injuries. The brunt of the impact hit the back seat. The drunk driver was found to have had a .14 blood alcohol level at the time of the accident.
The effects of a drunk driving accident can last a long time after an accident occurs. Many families are permanently deprived of their loved ones’ company. Survivors face long and arduous recoveries, and their lives are never the same as they were before the accident. A Bradenton car accident attorney can help victims and their families access compensation for the many different losses they suffer at the hands of an impaired driver.
