Are Car Accidents Civil or Criminal in SC?

Car Accidents – Civil vs. Criminal

Civil law is the form of legal proceeding where you can recover monetary damages for injuries you have sustained. The objective of civil proceedings is to make you whole again after your injury. Civil court is focused on money and monetary damages.

Criminal court is focused on punishing the person responsible for harming you and thereby harming society. The prosecutor pursues criminal charges through the criminal justice court system.

If someone intended to physically hurt you, you can bring an action for battery against them. Battery is one of South Carolina’s intentional “torts” or injuries. Criminally, they could be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a motor vehicle and many other charges which the solicitor finds appropriate. With each charge brought the damages in a civil case get higher because the more egregious their actions the more financial damages they have to pay.

Punitive Damages

If someone intended to hurt you through using a motor vehicle, or drove drunk, then the damages you can recover in a civil lawsuit will be much higher. The reason the damages will be higher is the law allows for something called, “punitive damages” which are meant to punish the person responsible for injuring you for their intentional act or road rage.

Punitive damages have a long history in civil jurisprudence. The object of punitive damages is to punish the individual responsible through causing punitive financial harm to that person through monetary damages.

When Car Accidents are Criminal:

Basically, you need to know three things about criminal law and car wrecks.

1.  If someone intended to hurt you, they may go to jail and may face criminal prosecution for what they did.
2. If someone drove drunk or inebriated, they may go to jail for what they did.
3. If someone drove in excess of 20 miles over the speed limit depending on the circumstances, they may go to jail for what they did. 

Car Accidents Caused by Drunk Drivers

The law frowns on people driving drunk in SC, and it is a crime. When someone drives drunk criminal charges will be brought. In addition, if someone drives high or inebriated in any fashion they will be charged with a crime.

If you have been injured by a drunk driver or high driver then the first thing you should do is the following:

1. Notify the officer that they appeared drunk or high. 
2. If you smell marijuana or alcohol inform the officer.
3. If you see drugs of any kind in plain sight, inform the officer.
4. Request the officer do a field sobriety test.

If you believe the person who hit you was impaired, notify the responding officer ASAP. The officer prepares police reports which will help your lawyer at trial to get you money to recover from your injury. If it’s not in the police report, then proving they were drunk or high becomes much harder for your lawyer. All you really have to do is ask the officer to do a field sobriety test. If they fail to do it, then the officer is satisfied they are sober, and you have done all you can.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation launched a “target zero” campaign with an ambitious goal to have no fatalities from automobiles. The only way it will be possible to approach that dream is to end drunk driving.