The holiday season is coming, with its parties and celebrations, and it is a good time to remember how much harm one impaired driver can do. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 32 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes every day, or one person every 44 minutes. In 2024, alcohol-impaired-driving crashes killed 11,904 people, 30 percent of all traffic deaths in the country (NHTSA).
If you were hurt by a drunk or drugged driver, more than one person or business may be responsible.
1. The Driver
Driving while intoxicated or while impaired by alcohol or drugs is against the law in New York (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192). The driver who caused the crash can be sued for the harm caused.
The criminal case and the injury case are separate. The criminal case is brought by the District Attorney and decides whether the driver committed a crime. Your injury case is yours to pursue, and it decides who must pay for your harm. You do not need to wait for the criminal case to end before protecting your claim, and some deadlines in the injury case are short.
2. The Vehicle's Owner
If the driver was using someone else's car with permission, the owner can be responsible too. New York law makes the owner of a vehicle liable for injuries "resulting from negligence in the use or operation of such vehicle . . . by any person using or operating the same with the permission, express or implied, of such owner" (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388(1)).
There is an important limit for rental and leasing companies. A federal law, known as the Graves Amendment, generally protects a company in the business of renting or leasing vehicles from liability just because it owns the car, unless the company itself was negligent or committed a crime (49 U.S.C. § 30106).
3. A Bar, Restaurant, or Store That Sold the Alcohol
New York's Dram Shop Act gives a person injured "by any intoxicated person, or by reason of the intoxication of any person" a claim against anyone who caused or contributed to that intoxication "by unlawful selling to or unlawfully assisting in procuring liquor for such intoxicated person." The injured person may recover "actual and exemplary damages" (General Obligations Law § 11-101).
Among other things, a sale is unlawful if it is made to a "visibly intoxicated person" or to a person "actually or apparently, under the age of twenty-one years" (Alcoholic Beverage Control Law § 65). So key questions include where the driver was drinking, what the driver was served, and how the driver looked and acted when served. Receipts, credit card records, witnesses, and the bar's own video can answer those questions, but video may be recorded over within weeks (see our Decision Day entry on Fernandez v Port Authority).
4. Someone Who Gave Alcohol to a Person Under 21
A separate law reaches anyone, including people who are not selling, who provides alcohol to someone under 21. A person injured because of the intoxication of someone under 21 has a claim against anyone who "knowingly causes such intoxication or impairment of ability by unlawfully furnishing to or unlawfully assisting in procuring alcoholic beverages for such person with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that such person was under the age of twenty-one years" (General Obligations Law § 11-100).
For adults, the rule is different. The Court of Appeals has explained that these laws are an exception to "the common law rule that a person consuming alcoholic beverages is solely responsible for injuries caused by his or her own intoxication," and that the Dram Shop Act "applies only to the commercial sale of intoxicating liquors" (Sherman v Robinson, 80 NY2d 483 [1992]). A host who serves an adult guest at a private party is not a seller under the Dram Shop Act.
Insurance: The Driver's Policy May Not Be Enough
New York's minimum liability coverage is $25,000 for injury to one person and $50,000 for injury to two or more people in one accident (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 311(4)). For a serious injury, that may not go far. Your own policy's supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, if you bought it, can help when the other driver did not carry enough (Insurance Law § 3420(f)(2)). Our posts on why New York drivers should buy more than the minimum and the most important insurance policy for New York City drivers explain more.
The 2026 Cap Applies to the Impaired Driver, Not to the People the Driver Hurt
For lawsuits started on or after May 26, 2026, New York limits pain-and-suffering damages to $100,000 for an injured person who is at fault and who was "operating a motor vehicle while impaired at the time of the accident and convicted of such" (Insurance Law § 5104(d)). And that is only if the impaired driver can recover at all: under the new rule for motor vehicle cases, a person found more at fault than the people he or she sues recovers nothing (CPLR 1411(b)). The $100,000 limit applies to the impaired driver's own claim. It does not limit the claims of the passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers the impaired driver hurt, unless one of them also falls within it (for example, an at-fault driver of an uninsured car he or she was responsible for insuring). The limit also does not apply in a case for injuries that caused a death. Our post on New York's 2026 changes for motor vehicle injury cases explains the other changes.
New York law also lets an insurance company deny No-Fault benefits to a driver who was injured as a result of driving while intoxicated or while impaired by a drug, except for necessary emergency care in a hospital, including ambulance services (Insurance Law § 5103(b)(2)). That exclusion is about the impaired driver's own benefits, not yours.
What to Do
- Get medical care, and follow your doctor's advice.
- Give the police everything you know, including anything the driver said about where he or she had been drinking.
- Give written notice of your No-Fault claim within 30 days of the accident (11 NYCRR 65-1.1). If a government vehicle was involved, a Notice of Claim generally must be served within 90 days (General Municipal Law § 50-e). In some circumstances, your time to act may be even shorter.
- Talk to a lawyer early, so that receipts, video, and witness accounts from the place where the driver was drinking can be requested before they are lost.
If you were hurt by a drunk or impaired driver, contact The Eskesen Law Firm for a free consultation. Calls are answered live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Questions about your own accident?
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