Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

Driving Under the Influence of Prescription Drugs

The following is a guest post from the Premier Law Group, a Seattle auto accident law firm:

Individuals driving under the influence often cause horrific accidents. With 2 million alcohol-related accidents occurring every year in the United States, it is understandable that drunk driving takes the lime light in auto accident discussions. In the last ten years, however, another drug has crept up and is posing as serious a threat to drivers as the drunk driving epidemic. The new intoxicated driving method—prescription medications. 
 


You may be wondering how relevant this issue is to everyday life since medications are prescribed under the direction of a doctor. How bad can they be, right? Recently, there was a Seattle car accident case won through the Bellevue personal injury law office, Premier Law Group, in which a construction worker was run over and drug 20 feet by a man who had fallen asleep at the wheel. Sure, you think people get drowsy at the wheel without impairment all the time, but this particular driver was under the influence of prescription medication. And what’s more, the medication had not been prescribed to him. 
 


The construction worker suffered massive injuries, which not only sent him to the hospital for an extensive period of time, also disabled him from returning to his chosen profession and he had to learn another trade.
 


Recent statistics show that 6 million Americans have likewise used prescription drugs for non-medical related purposes and the majority of these have driven while under the influence of the medication. But why is this growing problem never really addressed in society and how dangerous can prescription drugs really be? The article, Drugs and Driving, written by Seattle car accident attorney, Jason G. Epstein, discusses this growing epidemic and sheds some light on the grave dangers prescription drug abusers put themselves and other motorists in every day.