Did you know that nearly a quarter of all fatal accidents in Denver and across the nation involve a driver who should never have been behind the wheel?
A new study released by the AAA foundation indicates that 18.2 percent of crashes between 2007 and 2009 that resulted in death involved a driver whose license was either suspended or revoked or who had never been licensed at all. More startling is that this has proven to be an upward trend. In fact, the new data indicates it’s nearly a 5 percent increase when compared to figures from 2000.
Our Denver car accident attorneys know that being involved in a crash is traumatic, especially when it results in serious injury or death. It can be infuriating to learn that the person responsible for the wreck was prohibited by law from getting behind that steering wheel.
That’s why you need an experienced Colorado car accident attorney to help guide you through the process and help you get fair compensation.
Further findings from the AAA Foundation’s new study show that in the two years between 2007 and 2009, more than 151,000 drivers were involved in fatal crashes. Of those, more than 85 percent did have valid driver’s licenses. On the other hand, 6.2 percent had a license that was suspended or revoked, 4.4 percent were unlicensed, about 1 percent had a license that had expired or been cancelled or denied and the status of another 3 percent was unknown.
Of those unlicensed drivers involved in the crash, about 15 percent fled the scene, without regard for those they seriously injured or killed. Compare that to licensed drivers, of whom just 1 percent fled a fatal accident scene, making unlicensed motorists more than nine times as likely to take off.
And to delve further into the research, of the unlicensed drivers who were involved in fatal wrecks, nearly half (45.2 percent) were driving with alcohol in their system. They were twice as likely as licensed drivers to be drunk, with a blood alcohol concentration of more than 0.08 percent.
While this trend is up across the country, Colorado in particular has seen a spike in the correlation between unlicensed drivers and fatal car crashes, according to researchers.
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