How Do You Know Or Prove That Someone Was Driving Drunk?

To prove someone was driving negligently, we often can just rely on our own senses. For example, you, along with everyone else, can see someone who runs through a red light, or even someone who is driving excessively beyond the posted speed limit.

But DUI is different. When it comes to DUI, we often have no idea, at least at first, if someone is driving while under the influence. We may be able to see that they were swerving, or that they ran through a stop sign, or how carelessly they were driving—but that doesn’t tell us how much alcohol may or may not be in someone’s blood.

So if you are injured in an accident, and you think that the other driver who caused your accident may have been drunk, how can you find that out?

Police Reports

The obvious answer is the police report; every officer who arrives on scene and suspects alcohol may be involved, will note that in the police report, or will conduct field sobriety tests, or blood alcohol tests.

While in most cases these police reports cannot be used in trial, the information that comes from them—like failing a blood alcohol level test—are admissible. The same goes for any video or body cam footage that the officer’s camera may have recorded, which often shows negligent drivers displaying activities that indicate being under the influence.

Credit Card and Payment Information

Some people may drink while at home and then get on the road. But others may have come from a bar or restaurant. How do you know?

One way is that you have a right, in a lawsuit, to get the other driver’s credit card information. That information often will show that someone was just leaving a bar or restaurant, and spent a good amount of money on alcohol before getting behind the wheel.

Medical Records

If the negligent driver did get medical attention after the accident, that medical attention will often include records, such as blood draws, which may show alcohol. You have a right, in court, to ask for the negligent driver’s hospital records to verify this.

Cell Phone Data

Text messages can help in two ways. The first is obvious—sometimes people will just say where they are, or where they are coming from, in text messages. The second way is to see what those texts look like—often, when someone is drunk, texts will appear to be incoherent or grammatically disjointed.

You also have a right to ask for location (GPS) information, to see where the phone was, immediately before the accident. Just being at a bar or restaurant doesn’t by itself mean that someone is drunk or drinking—but with other evidence, it can go a long way to showing a jury that the other driver was in a position to be drinking before he or she drove away.

Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help if you have been injured by a drunk driver.

Source:

verywellmind.com/field-sobriety-test-67159