A well written letter to the editor in a recent Virginia Pilot talked about the loss of young lives in the context of the recent Virginia Tech tragedy.
No words can comfort a parent who has lost a child. That is probably one of the hardest and most unnatural types of grief in the world. The author noted that the leading cause of death in young people around the world is traffic injuries. In the United States each year 40,000 deaths occur because of automobile accidents and forty percent of those deaths are related to alcohol use. These 40,000 deaths do not even take into account mere injuries in vehicular accidents.
The editorial letter noted that on average forty-three Americans were killed by drunk drivers everyday. This terrible killer on our roads is easier to profile than the shooter at Virginia Tech. Very typically the impaired driver is a young man ages 18-20. Crashes are much more likely to occur with intoxicated young people driving than older people. I am sure that each of us has known someone who has been killed by a drunk driver. I remember several young students from Norfolk/Virginia Beach Virginia who were killed either at graduation time or on first going to their college campuses. It is all together too common and terribly sad. You can learn more about preventing underage drinking and driving by contacting organizations like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), whose website is www.madd.org.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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