Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog
It is often said that drinking and driving do not mix. That is never more true when the driver involved is an inexperienced teenager. A teen who consumes alcohol and then drives with passengers in their vehicle places the safety of those passengers in grave danger, a harsh reality that a recent crash in Southern Oregon reinforces. If you have endured serious harm as a result of a teenage impaired driver, you have a right to seek accountability. Reach out to a knowledgeable Oregon auto accident lawyer to discuss how you can go about getting the just compensation you need.
According to the Oregon State Police, the driver in the Southern Oregon wreck was a 17-year-old who was driving along Oregon 140 in Jackson County. The driver failed to navigate a curve and lost control of his pickup truck. The truck crashed through the guardrail and then rolled into a nearby creek. The driver and an 18-year-old passenger died at the scene. The state police reported that neither person was wearing a seatbelt, and they think “impairment and speed” were factors in the crash.
Two other 17-year-old passengers suffered critical injuries.
Teenage impaired driving is a significant problem in the United States. According to the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), roughly a quarter of all teen vehicle crashes “involve an underage drinking driver.” Additionally, “almost a third of young drivers killed in fatal crashes involved underage drinking,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
If you or a loved one has been seriously harmed in an accident where the driver was underage and impaired, you have a legal option for holding the responsible parties accountable for their actions. Those responsible for the crash may include more than just the underage, impaired driver. If someone served alcohol to an underage person and that underage person subsequently gets into a wreck, the law may allow that person’s passengers (and the occupants of any other vehicles involved in the crash) to hold the party who served that alcohol responsible.
Dram Shop and Social Host Liability
In scenarios where a bar or some other commercial vendor of alcohol served the underage party, Oregon’s dram shop law is involved. If the underage driver was served alcohol by a private party, that situation implicates Oregon’s social host liability law. These laws enable individuals who have been injured to pursue civil lawsuits and obtain the necessary compensation. In cases that involve drunk drivers of legal age, an injured person must prove that the business or social host served the person even though they were “visibly intoxicated.”
By contrast, when an injured person is harmed by an underage driver, the law does not require evidence that the person was visibly impaired. Instead, the law requires an injured person to demonstrate that the provider of alcohol did not engage in reasonable steps to ensure the purchaser/recipient was 21 or older. Specifically, Oregon requires proof that “a reasonable person would have determined that identification should have been requested or that the identification exhibited was altered or did not accurately describe the person to whom the alcoholic liquor was sold or served.” If the seller did not request identification, accepted an obviously fake ID, or accepted an ID that clearly belonged to someone else, then the injured person may have a strong case against the seller.
A dram shop claim provides multiple ways for an injured passenger to obtain more complete relief as compared to suing only the underage driver. For one thing, a business that sells alcohol likely has many more assets than a teenager. Additionally, the business is likely to have significantly more insurance coverage. (Oregon law requires all licensed commercial vendors of alcohol to hold at least $300,000 of liquor liability insurance.)
A drunk driver is a dangerous driver. That danger only escalates when the impaired driver is also underage. For knowledgeable answers and diligent advocacy, consult the experienced Oregon drunk driving accident attorneys at Kaplan Law LLC. We have first-hand experience with dram shop and social host liability matters, so we can knowledgeably and effectively aid you with your injuries stemming from an underage drunk driving crash. To learn more about our services, call (503) 226-3844 today or contact us online to schedule your free consultation.
