Indianapolis Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Crash: But Where Is the Justice?

Less than two weeks ago, an Indianapolis man accused of driving drunk and striking two 12 year-old girls, one fatally, pleaded guilty to two drunken-driving charges. The driver's blood-alcohol content was 0.20, more than double Indiana's legal standard for intoxication. According to The Indianapolis Star, the driver said he failed to see the girls, who were walking along the street, because he was changing the song on his CD player. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 4th. When a child is killed in an Indiana DUI car accident, the driver responsible will face criminal charges. In the criminal justice system, a drunk driver faces jail time for his or her actions. Many drunk drivers, however, receive the minimum mandatory sentence, regardless of who was hurt due to their careless decision to get behind the wheel. Where is the justice? For the families of innocent DUI victims, the outrage and sorrow caused by losing a loved one to a drunk driver is catastrophic. How can they make sense of a true tragedy, the unfair loss of an innocent life, and move forward with their lives? The civil justice system allows those victimized by DUI, DWI, OWI, or drunk driving accidents to hold drunk drivers responsible for their wrongdoing in civil lawsuits. In a DUI injury or DUI death civil action, a claim can be made for medical expenses, funeral expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, property damage, and potentially punitive damages. Filing a wrongful death claim or pursuing other civil suits cannot right a wrong, but it can help a family help a family obtain closure and, perhaps, a sense of justice. Indiana lawyers can help Indiana DUI victims and family members of those killed in drunk driving accidents garner full compensation for the harm caused by the wrongdoing of drunk drivers. They take cases from across the state, including those arising in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Merrillville, Lafayette, Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Evansville. If someone you love has been wrongfully injured or killed by a drunk driver's careless actions, it is imperative that you seek legal counsel from a lawyer with expertise in DUI personal injury and wrongful death civil action. At the time of this article's publication, no additional information is available regarding the fate of the drunk driver that plowed into the two 12-year-old girls. Soon after his guilty plea was entered, a judge reduced the man's bail from $80,000 to $25,000.