It may go without saying, but alcohol is a depressant that can impact the functions that keep a person driving safely, even in small amounts. When we drive, we rely on our hands, feet, eyes, and sometimes, ears to make the split-second decisions that sometimes need to be made while driving. Alcohol impairs visual acuity, making it more difficult to tell how far away other cars are as well as lane boundaries. It slows reaction times, leaving both the impaired driver and other motorists at risk of accidents that ordinarily would have been avoided. Fox 5 San Diego reports on a head-on accident that occurred when a suspected drunk driver veered into the oncoming traffic lane.
A 19-year-old driver of a small Saturn sedan is recovering from major injuries after an accident that claimed the life of their passenger, a 20-year-old woman.
Guadalupe Esmerelda Perulero had been in the back seat of the 1996 Saturn when the driver crossed over into oncoming traffic on South Mission Road. The Saturn hit a 2007 U-Haul truck head-on just south of Fallbrook High School.
When first responders arrived on the scene, Perulero was located in the back seat of the vehicle. She had succumbed to what rescuers described as “obvious facial trauma.”
The driver is expected to survive but had to be airlifted to Scripps Memorial Hospital. He was suffering from major trauma and a fractured hand.
Two other passengers were taken to Palomar Medical Center with less severe injuries.
Authorities believe that alcohol and drugs as well as not wearing seatbelts were factors in the crash.
The driver of the U-Haul suffered only from minor injuries.
