Drunk Driving Accident

Another drunken driving accident occurred in Westminster, Colorado recently. The at fault driver was charged with vehicular homicide and the crash killed a 21-year-old woman.

Viet Quoc Nguyen was charged with vehicular homicide reckless driving, vehicular homicide drunken driving, hit and run and causing a traffic accident without giving aid. Additionally, he was charged with driving while his license was under restraint, failure to give aid and disobeying a red light, according to court documents. Also, Nguyen's license was revoked for an alcohol driving offense. Nguyen may have been behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayenne that ran the red light. The accident was at West 118th Avenue at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Sadly, Jenna Breen, 21, was killed in the accident. Breen, 21, was reported to be returning from her job as a server at the Fox and Hound restaurant in Westminster, Colorado.

As part of our ongoing quest to educate the public I think people should learn a few things . An analysis of the civil legal situation is that if the Porsche driver ran the red light then he would be considered at fault and a claim can be brought against the at fault driver's auto insurance company. The civil complaint could claim a violation of a traffic law which is called negligence per se and a jury would be able to consider that in their decision. Also, this case could include a claim that the at fault driver is responsible for punitive damages, because of the DUI. Therefore, a jury could award more than a typical case as punishment money for the victims family. Also, the case is considered a wrongful death claim, so there would be interesting issues on which family members could bring the claim. There is always a shorter statute of limitations on wrongful death cases, in Colorado it is two years. Our firm has handled many cases similar to this, and we have seen first hand how difficult it can be for the family, including devastating financial burdens. Our sympathy goes out to the family