Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

Ron:

I recall when I did a short stint at the prosecutor's office while in law school dealing with DUI cases in Miami, a community that is predominantly Hispanic; the fact of the matter is that in comparision to the drunk driving community at large, illegals make up only a tiny fraction as a whole, but out of that fraction proportionately higher rates than others. Why is this so? Part of it is cultural; most of it is ignorance and some of it is the fact that they are illegal.

That being said drunk driving and the damage caused by those accidents is a serious problem compounded even further when the drunk driver is an illegal immigrant because often times that person shouldn't have been driving in the first place and doesn't have any insurance. That is why I always recommend that people have as much coverage as possible on their own policies for Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist Coverage in the event they are struck by someone who has no insurance or is inadequautely covered regardless of citizenship.

The current Maryland minimum requirements of $20K is dangerously low [set in the late 1970's!!!] and in my opinion should be at least $100K today. It won't change the sad reality that this young man and his girlfriend where killed by a man who made poor choices and who had no respect for himself let alone others on the road out there.

Ron,

I agree with you that the "but for" causation of driver's immigration status has no bearing on the accident. On Gabriel's suggestion on UM and UIM coverages, I carry relatively high liability limits (with an umbrella policy) specifically so I can carry UM and UIM limits in an equal amount. My family and I know we're covered in the event of an accident not our fault -- and we also have the happy side benefit of high liability coverages. The last I checked, one cannot buy higher UM and UIM limits than one has liability limits. If that has changed, please let me know. I'll also check my umbrella pollicy to find out whether it applies to UM and UIM coverages (I'm guessing that it doesn't).

Tony and Gabe:

Thank you both for commenting. I really can't speak intelligently about latinos and drunk driving because I've never seen a statistic. I hate to suggest that a race or culture of people are more inclined to drink and drive than others. Then again, I'm not going to look at hard data and pretend it does not exist for the sake of being politically correct. But I've never seen any; the first I learned of a higher incidence rate in Gabe's post. Do you have any data on this Gabe?

You guys are missing the point. There is NO WAY on God's green earth that someone in this country "illegally" should have a drivers license in the first place. Now we have another "illegal" homicide case, where a toddler was dragged under the vehicle for over a mile when the illegal driver fled the scene of the accident.

Well, I think what the Baltimore Sun was trying to do more than take focus off the alchohol was to further villify the driver. Otherwise, they wouldn't really mention it.

Actually, alcohol and driving caused the accident-not status. The only thing I would question is how he got a license. I live in a primarily Portuguese community and they can take the test in Portuguese so that they understand the questions. Roadsigns are practically universal. I got a drivers license in Japan without knowing the language but I took the test in English, for understanding...drivng on the other side of the road and car! I just didn't get behind the wheel with alcohol in my system!