City: Green Township

County: Hamilton County, Ohio

Date: September 29, 2010

Type: Car Accident

A Green Township grandmother crashed her Altima with her 3-year-old grandson in the vehicle. She is accused of being intoxicated while behind the wheel and has been cited for OVI. No injuries were reported in the accident that took place on Harrison Avenue.

This allegedly intoxicated grandmother reminds me of the seriousness of drunk driving. Not only can a drunk driver be cited for the underlying offense, but the penalty for drunk driving can be much worse.  In addition, any person injured by the drunk driver can possibly sue for punitive damages for reckless behavior.  Punitive damages are damages awarded to punish the wrong doer and deter others from doing the same behavior.  The fine is paid by the wrongdoer to the person hurt, and has no real relation to the size of the underlying claim. In the past companies were fined millions of dollars in punitive damages for reckless or intentional behavior, because this is the amount of money juries felt was needed to be paid to deter such behavior.
 
However, courts have limited the size of the punitive damage award in recent years to a multiple of the compensatory damages for the actual injury. On a side note, the Ohio Supreme court ruled recently that insurance companies would have to pay attorneys fees awarded in relation to punitive damage awards unless they specifically exclude this from the policy of the person made to pay punitive damages. This will help motivate attorneys to pursuer valid punitive damage claims and hopefully deter such reckless or intentional behavior in the future.

Hamilton County, Ohio (population 845,303) had a total of 31,461 reported accidents in 2008, with 56 of them being fatal (61 fatalities). 5,721 of the crashes were injury crashes, with a total of 7,923 injuries. Green Township, Ohio (population 55,660) had a total of 1,689 reported accidents in 2008.


If you've been seriously injured or have lost a loved one in a Green Township truck / car accident, call the Hamilton County auto accident and wrongful death attorneys / lawyers at Chester Law Group at 1-800-218-4243 or order your FREE BOOK entitled The Insider’s Guide to Handling Ohio Accident Claims at www.ChesterLaw.com.