A 29-year-old woman was killed in a suspected drunk driving accident in Crescent City, California over the weekend. On Sunday night, 38-year-old Michael Jones, and the victim Jolynda R. Peters, were in Jones’ Honda Prelude, with Jones in the driver’s seat. The car collided with a Ford Ranger which was attempting to make a right turn into a driveway. Jones had apparently been speeding at the time of the car accident. The force of the impact pushed the Ford off the road, and into a ditch. Both Jones as well as the driver of the Ford, 59-year-old Ivan Beckendorf, were injured in the car accident. Peters suffered major injuries, and was later declared dead at the scene of the accident.

Both the injured men were taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries, and were later transported to a Redding hospital. Tests revealed that Jones was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the car accident. According to Times-Standard, he was arrested for vehicular manslaughter, and for driving under the influence of alcohol. The California Highway Patrol is continuing to investigate the case.

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration place the number of dead each year nationwide in drunk driving accidents at 17,500. Apart from the people who are killed, there are thousands of others who are injured. This in turn, leads to high expenses for medical treatment, inability to work, and other effects that have an impact on our society.

California has some of the strongest drunk driving laws in the country, and they have been used with great effect by the CHP and drunk driving accident lawyers to bring down the statewide number of drunken driving accident fatalities. According to the laws we have here, it’s not just the person who’s behind the wheel in a drunken state who can be held responsible for injuries sustained as a result of the car accident, but possibly also the establishment that was responsible for serving him the alcohol.