Driver Gets Six Years in Prison After Fatal DUI Accident
One of the biggest criticisms of strictly enforced drinking age laws is that they encourage young adults to drink to excess. By this logic, in societies without a strict drinking age, teens and adults drink in moderation side by side, instead of teens counting the days until they can legally buy alcohol and then going to the liquor store as soon as it opens on their 21st birthday and getting smashed. We have all heard stories of epic drinking binges by barely legal drinkers; perhaps when you were 21 years old, your own epic hangover eventually became the stuff of a cautionary tale. Of course, we have also read stories in the news about things going horribly wrong with barely legal drinkers, the people who drank 21 shots on their 21st birthday and did not live to see their 22nd birthday, the horrific accidental injuries that occurred under circumstances where everyone present was so drunk that no one can get their story straight about how it happened. Several years ago, a young man barely old enough to drink caused a fatal collision when he drove into oncoming traffic while drunk; he eventually got a prison sentence for vehicular homicide. If you suffered serious injuries in a head on collision involving a drunk driver, contact an auto accident lawyer.
Lakewood Man Pleaded Guilty to Vehicular Manslaughter After Colliding Head On With Car While Drunk
In 2022, Mordechai Berkowitz of Lakewood was 21 years old. It was legal for him to drink alcohol and legal for him to drive, but not to do both of those things at the same time. One evening in July, Berkowitz was driving east on South Lake Drive while under the influence of alcohol. His car veered across the yellow double lines in the center of the road and into the westbound lanes. He collided head on with an SUV that was heading west.
The driver of the SUV suffered serious injuries; news reports did not release her name but said that she was 35 years old. The passenger, Juana Lopez-Hernandez, died of her injuries shortly after the accident. She was 44 years old.
Berkowitz also suffered injuries seriously enough to require hospitalization. At the time of the accident, his blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit. Upon his release from the hospital, he went to the police station with his criminal defense lawyer and turned himself in. Berkowitz eventually pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. In December 2025, when he was 24 years old, a court sentenced him to six years in prison.
Contact Monaco Law About Car Accidents
Contact Monaco Law PC in Marlton, New Jersey to discuss your car accident case. Joseph Monaco is a New Jersey and Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer serving Atlantic County, Bucks County, Burlington County, Cape May County, Camden County, Chester County, Cumberland County, Delaware County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Ocean County, Salem County, Susquehanna County and all of New Jersey.
Source:
yahoo.com/news/articles/drunk-driver-doing-90-35-234755267.html
