U.S. court fines bar $301B for selling drinks to drunk driver

A U.S. jury ruled that a bar should pay 301 billion dollars to a family of victims of drunk driving as it sold drinks to the involved driver. The bar needs to be held accountable for helping lead to a car accident due to drunk driving as bartenders at the bar allegedly over-served the guest although they already knew that he was drunk severely.

According to CNN on Saturday, a jury in Nueces County, Texas, ruled last Tuesday against the owner of the bar that sold drinks right before the car crash. The sum of 301 billion dollars is way over the personal injury award of 150 billion dollars ordered back in 2011, recording the largest amount ever for any case involving an injury or a death in the United States, said CNN.

Fully intoxicated in November 2017, Joshua Delbosque, 29, ran a red light at an intersection at 146 km per hour, which hit a car with Tamra Kindred and her granddaughter Aujuni Anderson in it to leave all three of them dead. It was revealed in an autopsy that Delbosque had been dead drunk with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.263 percent. The victims’ family filed a civil lawsuit against the owner of the bar, arguing that the bar should have recognized that Delbosque can pose a danger to anyone else as he had already lost control of his mental and physical functions.

Despite the verdict, the bereaved family of the victims may not receive the compensation not only because the bar closed after the car accident but also because the owner is not capable of paying such a gigantic sum of money. A lawyer for the victims’ family said that the sum is only a symbolic conclusion, adding that it sends a social message to warn about the consequences of drunk driving and selling an excessive amount of alcohol.


Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com