A driver rammed a rented truck into seven other vehicles in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, causing many injuries. The driver was identified as convicted felon Devon Brandon. Authorities said the crash happened because the 36-year-old was driving under the influence. The 2017 incident underscores the severity of drunk driving as a contributor to injuries and deaths on NYC roads.
Right after the incident, Brandon tried to escape the scene in a fire truck that responded to the multi-vehicle collision. Despite the comical nature of the event, the crash injured nine people, including Brandon.
A driver rammed a rented truck into seven other vehicles in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, causing many injuries. The driver was identified as convicted felon Devon Brandon. Authorities said the crash happened because the 36-year-old was driving under the influence. The 2017 incident underscores the severity of drunk driving as a contributor to injuries and deaths on NYC roads.
Right after the incident, Brandon tried to escape the scene in a fire truck that responded to the multi-vehicle collision. Despite the comical nature of the event, the crash injured nine people, including Brandon.
According to reports, Brandon was on parole after being convicted of trading illegal weapons at the time of the accident. The felon even physically assaulted one of the firefighters in the fire truck in his bid to hijack the vehicle. Before he could evade in his potential getaway truck, the firefighters restrained and subdued Brandon.
The police apprehended Brandon for the traffic-pandemonium that he had caused. Following the arrest, the man was charged with multiple offenses, including reckless endangerment, DUI, and assaulting a firefighter.
Video footage of the incident showed many people who were enjoying their Sunday afternoon scattering in a panic reaction to the mayhem Brandon created. Eight of the people injured in the crash were rushed to the Roosevelt Hospital for treatment. However, no critical injuries were reported. The video also showed the firefighters struggling to restrain the criminal.
The Bigger Picture: Drunk Driving is Still a Leading Traffic Hazard in NYC
Regardless of the event’s absurdity, drunk driving is a serious issue since it is one of the leading contributors to overall traffic accidents in NYC. The state of New York takes impaired driving very seriously, and it has made progress in reducing DUI associated accidents. But there is still a long way to go to eliminate impaired driving.
More than 8000 drunk-driving crashes occurred in NYC in 2016 alone, resulting in 247 deaths and over 4000 injuries. The entire United States’ figures are even more alarming, with 10,511 drunk-driving related deaths occurring in 2018 alone, averaging a drunk-driving fatality every 50 minutes!
These statistics show that alcohol-impaired driving kills hundreds of people in NYC every year, besides injuring and disabling thousands of people. Most of such incidents could be prevented if authorities take timely action, but unfortunately, they end up causing deaths, injuries, and destruction.
The Legal Aspect
In case you have been a victim of careless driving or driving under the influence, you can press charges and claim financial compensation. The same holds true if a loved one of yours has sustained injuries or died in such an incident. In case of death, the victim’s family can file a lawsuit with the help of a personal injury lawyer NYC or a car accident attorney.
An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you file a strong lawsuit, with better prospects of winning your case. You must discuss your case with a reliable personal injury attorney to determine whether it is viable to file a lawsuit. Also, be sure the injury lawyer or wrongful death attorney has experience handling similar cases because different accident lawyers in NYC have different areas of specialties.
