50 homes lose electricity in Kirkland after a drunk driver runs into a power pole
Drunk drivers causing property damage seems to have been a theme of this blog recently. Earlier this week, a drunk driving accident occurred when the driver collided with a patrol car on the side of the road and last week a drunk driver smashed into a Kent business. As a Seattle personal injury attorney, I am painfully aware that there are many different ways that a drunk driver can affect the lives of innocent victims.
Police in Kirkland reported that a suspected drunk driver was the reason behind 50 homes losing power on Thursday night. The driver was eastbound on NE 85th around 11:40 p.m. when they ran off the road at 126th Ave NE. The driver was not seriously injured after colliding with a power pole. Puget Sound Energy officials say that power was expected to be restored around 8 a.m. because utility crews had to replace the pole.
While the loss of power for the night is an inconvenience, it is not even close to the most serious consequence of driving drunk. While the residents of those 50 homes are without power for the night, they all remain safe and unharmed. What if, instead of a power pole, the driver had swerved off the road into a house? The driver obviously had little control over his car, so that is a plausible scenario. In that instant the lives of a family could have been changed because of injuries suffered from the accident and also because of property damage from the accident. The consequences of drunk driving range from something as trivial as the loss of power for a night to the tragic loss of a life.
The best way to avoid these consequences is to get rid of the problem. The penalties for drunk driving need to be increased so that people will think twice about getting behind the wheel after a night of drinking.