One Long Island family is slowly trying to move forward from an accident that left an 86-year-old husband and father dead and an 84-year-old wife and mother seriously injured. The 33-year-old man who was accused driving pled guilty to driving while intoxicated, assault, second degree murder and aggravated vehicular assault and has recently been sentenced. While the 12-year-prsion sentence will keep him off the road, it does not help this traumatized family cover the costs of recovery.
The 84-year-old woman who was injured in the accident is still recovering and continues to walk with a cane. Her injuries were quite severe after the drunk driver hit her and her husband's car head-on. Both of the wife's lungs collapsed and 28 of her bones were broken, including her neck and pelvis.
Sadly, her husband died in the accident. They had been married for 61 years.
The 33-year-old had a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level two hours after the accident, indicating that he was even drunker at the time of the accident. Anyone who is found to have a blood-alcohol content of higher than 0.08 in New York can be found guilty of driving while intoxicated.
This family has gone through a lot since the November accident, but only part of it has been the pain and suffering associated with the accident. While it is not often talked about, being the victim of a car accident is expensive. Victims have to pay for their emergency medical care and the long-term costs of therapy, lost wages and property damage. Fatal car accidents also require victims to pay for funeral and burial costs.
These costs should not be shouldered by the victims or their families, however. Rather, it should be the driver that caused the accident that should have to pay for both the medical and financial burdens that he or she has caused.
Source: CBS New York, "Everardo Nieto Sentenced In Syosset Crash That Killed Myron Jacobs, 86," April 16, 2012
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