Maryland State Police have been investigating a fatal car accident that took the lives of Christine Marie Bruno, 44, and her 14-year-old daughter Kristen on August 17.
Bruno was pulling out onto Holly Grove Road from the Glen Ridge development when she neglected to yield to traffic on Route 50 and was hit by a Ford truck being driven by Dagsboro resident Howard L. Lynch III, 35.
Bruno was killed on impact. Her daughter, Kristen, was flown to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. Another juvenile, a 13-year-old girl, who had been sitting in the front passenger seat of Bruno’s car, was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital and treated for critical injuries. She is expected to recover fully.
While Lynch is not considered the at-fault driver in the accident, police say that he was driving under the influence and there was marijuana in his truck. He was charged with DUI, possession of marijuana, and possession of paraphernalia. Worcester County State Attorney Joel Todd is still determining whether to charge Lynch with vehicular homicide.
In 1999, According to Unitedjustice.com:
· There were an estimated 6,289,000 car accident in the US.
· 3.4 million of these accidents resulted in injuries.
· 41,6111 people were killed due to these accidents.
· An average of 114 people die in car crashes in the US every day.
In 2004, according to the CDC’s website:
· 16,694 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 39% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA 2005).
· About 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (Department of Justice, 2004). That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired driving among U.S. adults each year (Quinlan et al. 2005).
· Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol (Jones et al. 2003).
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes; someone is injured in an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash every two minutes.
If you or someone you know has been injured in a vehicle-related accident due to the negligence or carelessness of a drunk driver, you should consult a personal injury attorney to see if you should file a personal injury lawsuilt.
Mother, Daughter Killed In Berlin Crash, Delmarvanow.com, August 19, 2006
Teen Expected To Survive Crash, Delmarvanow.com, August 22, 2006
Impaired Driving, CDC.com
Killed By Car Accidents, Unitedjustice.com
Related Web Resources:
The National Commission Against Drunk Driving
Drunk Driving, National Safety Council.org