The hours after a drunk driving crash in Sacramento don’t follow a script. One moment you’re driving home, the next there are sirens, flashing lights, and questions you never expected to answer. While you’re still trying to understand what happened, insurance adjusters may already be calling, the police are investigating, and you may be headed to an emergency room.
What you do in these first hours and days can shape both your physical recovery and any claim you bring later. Sacramento has some of the highest per-capita traffic fatality rates among California’s largest cities, and in 2023 alone there were 1,269 alcohol-related fatalities and injuries in Sacramento County. We’ve seen how chaotic the aftermath of these crashes can be, and we’ve guided many families here through exactly this situation.
At Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP, we approach these cases with two goals: protect your well-being right now and protect your rights for the months and years ahead. The steps below are meant to help you do both if you’re trying to figure out what to do after being hit by a drunk driver in Sacramento.
Why a Drunk Driving Crash Is Legally Different from Other Accidents
A DUI crash isn’t “just another” car accident under California law. When a driver gets behind the wheel impaired, the legal rules that apply to your case change in ways that usually make proving fault easier and the stakes higher for the insurer.
California Vehicle Code section 23152 makes it illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When a driver violates this law and causes a crash, we use a doctrine called negligence per se. That means the act of driving impaired itself is treated as a breach of the legal duty to drive safely. Instead of spending months arguing about whether the other driver was reasonably careful, we can point to the DUI as negligence as a matter of law.
There is another important difference. California Civil Code section 3294 allows courts to award punitive damages when a defendant’s conduct amounts to malice, oppression, or fraud, which includes despicable conduct carried on with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights or safety of others. Courts across California have recognized that choosing to drink, become intoxicated, and then drive falls into that category.
Because of negligence per se and the possibility of punitive damages, DUI cases often have higher settlement values than similar non-DUI crashes. Liability is harder for the defense to dispute, and the risk of a jury punishing drunk driving behavior gives insurers a strong incentive to resolve the case fairly. That does not mean they will do so automatically, but it changes the leverage you have if the case is prepared correctly.
What to Do at the Scene & Immediately After
If you are still at the scene, or you are helping a loved one who is, a few concrete steps can protect both safety and evidence.
First, call 911. In a suspected DUI crash, it is important that law enforcement responds to the scene, documents what happened, and evaluates the other driver for impairment. Officers can conduct field sobriety tests, arrange breath or blood alcohol concentration (BAC) testing, and record their observations in a collision report. If no officer responds, key BAC evidence can be lost as the driver sobers up.
Second, tell officers everything you observed that suggested impairment. That might include swerving before impact, driving the wrong way, the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, open containers, or stumbling when the driver got out of the vehicle. These details often show up later in the police report and can be very important to your civil claim.
Third, gather what you safely can at the scene:
- Photograph vehicles & damage. Capture all angles of the vehicles, license plates, road markings, skid marks, debris, and any visible injuries.
- Document the surroundings. Take photos of traffic lights, stop signs, construction zones, lighting, and weather conditions.
- Get contact information. Ask witnesses for their names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Do not rely on the police report to capture everyone.
If your injuries are severe, medical care comes first. In Sacramento, that may mean being transported directly to UC Davis Medical Center, which is California’s only Level I trauma center north of San Francisco and Sacramento County’s designated trauma center. If you leave by ambulance, ask a passenger, friend, or even a bystander you trust to take photos and note witness contact information if they can do so safely.
Seek Medical Care, Even If You Feel Fine
After a high-impact crash, it is common to feel shaken but “okay” because adrenaline masks symptoms. Some of the most serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, organ damage, or soft tissue injuries, may not show immediate warning signs. We have seen many clients who tried to wait it out, only to find themselves in the emergency room days later in far worse condition.
Early evaluation protects your health and also documents that your injuries are directly tied to the crash. Emergency room records, urgent care notes, imaging results, and follow-up visits from the day of or shortly after the collision create a clear timeline that insurers cannot easily dispute.
When there is a gap between the crash and the first recorded treatment, insurers often argue that something else must have caused your symptoms. In a county that saw 1,269 alcohol-related fatalities and injuries in a single year, and where DUI crashes are known to cause severe trauma because impaired drivers react too slowly to brake or avoid impact, those arguments do not reflect reality. But we still have to anticipate them and close those gaps where we can.
Tell every provider you see that you were hit by a suspected drunk driver and describe all of your symptoms, even if they seem minor: headaches, dizziness, neck or back pain, numbness, memory issues, or emotional changes like anxiety or trouble sleeping. Those details help physicians order the right tests and also appear in your medical records, which become core evidence in your civil claim.
Your Civil Claim Is Separate from the Criminal Case
One of the biggest points of confusion we see is the relationship between the drunk driver’s criminal case and your civil claim. They are completely separate processes.
The Sacramento County District Attorney decides whether to bring criminal charges, such as DUI causing injury under Vehicle Code sections 23152 or 23153. That criminal case focuses on punishing the driver and protecting the public, not on paying your medical bills, lost earnings, or future care.
Your civil claim, on the other hand, is brought against the drunk driver, and possibly others, to recover money for your injuries and damages. You do not have to wait for a criminal conviction to file or pursue a civil lawsuit. In many cases, waiting can actually harm your claim because evidence goes stale and deadlines get closer.
If the driver is convicted of DUI, that conviction can be powerful evidence of negligence per se in the civil case. We can often obtain and use the criminal court records, plea forms, and sentencing documents to prove liability. But it is important to understand that your timeline is governed by civil law. Under California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, you generally have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. That statute of limitations keeps running regardless of how long the criminal case takes.
In serious cases, we often begin investigating, preserving evidence, and dealing with insurers long before the criminal matter is resolved. That parallel track is normal, and it is often necessary to protect your rights.
How Insurance Companies Respond & What to Watch For
California follows a fault-based auto insurance system. That means the drunk driver’s liability insurance is usually the first source of recovery for your medical expenses, lost income, and other damages. But the coverage limits can be very low. As of 2025, California’s minimum required liability coverage is 30,000 dollars per person and 60,000 dollars per accident for bodily injury, which is quickly exhausted in a serious DUI injury case.
Because their exposure can be significant, insurers act fast. It is common for an adjuster, sometimes from the drunk driver’s insurer and sometimes from your own insurer, to call you within days of the crash. They may sound friendly, but their job is to protect the company’s bottom line.
There are a few tactics we see repeatedly in Sacramento DUI cases:
- Quick, low settlements. An adjuster may offer a check early on, before you know the full extent of your injuries or future medical needs, in exchange for a full release of your claim.
- Recorded statements. They may ask for a recorded interview “to get your side of the story.” The real goal is often to lock you into statements that can later be used to argue you were not badly hurt or were partly at fault.
- Comparative fault arguments. California uses a pure comparative negligence system, which means your compensation can be reduced by any percentage of fault they manage to pin on you. Even in clear DUI cases, insurers sometimes argue you were speeding, following too closely, or not wearing a seat belt, hoping to reduce what they have to pay.
If the drunk driver is uninsured or does not carry enough coverage to pay for your losses, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage may step in. UM/UIM claims are brought against your own insurer, but they are still adversarial claims. You should treat those communications with the same caution as you would communications with the other driver’s insurer.
Until you understand your injuries, the available insurance coverage, and your legal options, it is generally safest not to give any recorded statement or accept any settlement offer. Once you sign a release, you almost never get a second chance, even if your condition worsens.
Evidence That Strengthens a Sacramento DUI Injury Claim
The quality of evidence gathered in the days and weeks after a DUI crash often determines how strong your civil claim will be. In a city with a high rate of serious traffic fatalities, we have learned that thorough investigation is one of the most important ways we can protect our clients.
Certain categories of evidence are especially powerful in DUI cases:
- Police & DUI testing records. The collision report, officer body camera footage, BAC test results, field sobriety test notes, and any chemical test refusal documentation all help establish impairment. If the driver has prior DUI convictions, those records can also support a claim for punitive damages under Civil Code section 3294 by showing a pattern of knowingly dangerous behavior.
- Eyewitness statements. Memories fade quickly. We frequently work with professional investigators to locate and obtain recorded statements from witnesses while the crash is still fresh in their minds. Many law firms never take this step, but juries and insurers give significant weight to clear, contemporaneous witness accounts.
- Accident reconstruction. In more serious cases, we often bring in accident reconstruction professionals to analyze vehicle damage, scene measurements, skid marks, event data recorder downloads, and surveillance or traffic camera footage. Their work can show speed, point of impact, and driver actions in the seconds before the crash, which is especially important when the insurer tries to dispute fault or suggest you were partly to blame.
- Medical & life impact documentation. Detailed medical records, physical therapy notes, pain journals, employment records, and statements from family or co-workers can demonstrate not only what happened in the crash but also how it has changed your daily life and future plans.
In some limited situations, we also assess whether anyone besides the drunk driver may share responsibility. California’s dram shop law is narrow, but Business and Professions Code section 25602.1 can sometimes create liability for a bar or other licensed provider that served alcohol to an obviously intoxicated minor who then caused injuries. These cases are fact intensive and rare, but they are part of the broader picture we evaluate when the injuries are catastrophic.
Moving Forward After Being Hit by a Drunk Driver in Sacramento
In the first days after a DUI crash, it is easy to feel like events are happening to you and you have little control. Taking a few concrete steps can change that: get thorough medical care, make sure law enforcement documents what happened, preserve what evidence you can, and be cautious with insurance companies before you understand the full scope of your injuries and rights.
The groundwork you lay now helps determine what kind of recovery, financial and physical, is possible later. At Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP, we prepare every serious injury case as if it can go to trial, and we have obtained multi-million-dollar results for people injured by others’ recklessness across California. If you or someone you care about has been hit by a drunk driver in Sacramento and you want to talk through your options, we are here to listen and help you plan the next steps at (916) 999-9132.