Recently, Managing Partner, Larry Kimmel spoke to students of Tower Hill School on the seriousness of distracted and drunk driving. Earlier this month, Delaware Online, posted a story of where Delaware ranks nationally in drunken driving deaths. From 2003-2012 there were 427 people killed in crashes involving drunk drivers in Delaware. Nationally, one in three traffic deaths in the United States involves a drunk driver.
Delaware Online reports that the state of Delaware currently ranks 26th in drunk driving accidents on the national scale. Delaware averages 3.33 drunken or impaired driving deaths per 100,000 people between Christmas and New Year’s over the past five years. Larry Kimmel spoke to students of the severity of being hit by drunk drivers and the repercussions of causing a crash while drinking and driving.
During this speech, Larry Kimmel explained to students that Delaware is a no-fault state, meaning that all drivers regardless of fault, must go through their personal injury protection (PIP) to have medical bills and lost wages paid. All medical bills and lost wages that are not PIP eligible are part of the pain and suffering claim against the at-fault driver. Larry Kimmel played a vital role in passing a new law that raised Delaware’s auto insurance minimums for liability bodily injury for uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) bodily injury to $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. After being struck by a drunk driver, hire an attorney to help get your medical bills and/or lost wages paid by your own insurance company, and to deal with the drunken driver’s insurance company.
