Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog

A 45-year-old man is in critical condition following a Boston car accident in which he was struck by an unlicensed driver late last month.

According to the MetroWest Daily News, the crash happened on Rt. 126 in Framingham, as the pedestrian was crossing the street at about 7 p.m. to get to Moran's Market.

The 21-year-old driver who allegedly struck him did not have a license, police say.
Officers don't believe the young driver was speeding, but he had three others in the car with him at the time of the crash, and he told investigators he didn't see the pedestrian until he hit him.

When questioned about his lack of a license, the driver reportedly told police he didn't pass the required vision test.

Our Boston car accident attorneys unfortunately see cases like this far too often, when a driver who should never have been on the road gets behind the wheel and causes serious injury or worse.

In fact, a new study was released by the AAA Foundation on this very issue. The organization first began looking at the problem back in 2000, when they found that nearly 14 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes did not have a valid driver's license. That means those drivers either never had a license, or their privileges had been suspended, revoked, cancelled or denied.

Now, in 2011, that figure has not changed. We still have the same number of unlicensed drivers wreaking havoc on our roadways. It currently breaks down to about one out of every eight drivers you pass on your daily commute.

Crashes involving unlicensed drivers have accounted for more than 21,000 deaths in the U.S., just between 2007 and 2009.

The statistics may seem somewhat overwhelming, but consider that each and every one of those victims is someone's mother, father, sister, brother, child or friend.

What's even more troubling is that of those unlicensed drivers involved in fatal crashes, nearly half had been consuming alcohol at the time of the accident.

And those same unlicensed drivers, when they caused a crash, were more than three times as likely as properly licensed drivers to flee the scene.

In most cases, younger drivers - those between the ages of 21 and 34 - were the most likely to have suspended or revoked licenses. In fact, just like the case mentioned above, more than half of unlicensed drivers involved in fatal crashes were in this younger age group.

In the Framingham car accident case, the victim is being treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He's expected to undergo a CAT scan, and even if he survives - which doctors say he might - he could be facing years of intensive therapy and medical bills - likely with the added frustration of lost wages.

As he and his family look to a long road to recovery, investigators are still determining whether they will file additional charges against the driver.