A New York driver, who traveled more than 6 miles in the wrong direction on Interstate 95 in an intoxicated condition, causing a fatal accident, has been charged with second degree manslaughter.
According to the complaint, the twenty-six-year-old woman was driving intoxicated when her vehicle crashed into a car. One of the passengers in the car, a twenty-nine-year-old man from New Jersey was killed in the accident. The driver sustained serious injuries, and is in a Bronx hospital. Gomez also suffered injuries in the accident, and is reported to be in a fair condition.
Results of alcohol and drug tests on the female driver are still pending. However, for New York car accident lawyers, this accident is eerily reminiscent of the one that occurred on the Taconic Parkway two years ago. In that crash, a mother drove her minivan in the wrong direction for several miles, before she crashed into another car. Four children in her minivan were killed in the accident. Three people in the other car were also killed. Since then, investigators have determined that the woman had been driving under the influence of alcohol. She also had traces of marijuana in her system.
That wrong way driving is so often linked to intoxicated driving should not surprise anyone. One of the effects of driving under the influence of alcohol is that it impairs your judgment and your ability to reason. It also increases your propensity to make critical driving errors. In an intoxicated state, a motorist is much more likely to miss warning signs and turns, and end up making critical driving mistakes, like driving into opposing traffic. When you consider that many times, intoxicated driving is also accompanied by speeding, it’s not hard to understand why these accidents are so deadly.