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If you were hit by a drunk driver in Orange County over Memorial Day weekend, your case is worth substantially more than an ordinary car accident — California Civil Code §3294 makes punitive damages available against any defendant whose conduct was malicious or in conscious disregard of others, and DUI is the textbook example. Most Memorial Day DUI accident cases in OC settle for \$75,000 to \$750,000 on the underlying compensatory claim alone, before the multiplier effect punitive damages can add. Catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases regularly exceed \$2,000,000 to \$15,000,000. You have two years under Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 to file your lawsuit, but evidence — surveillance video, witness memory, the at-fault driver’s BAC results — starts disappearing within hours. Sky Law Group answers the phone 24/7 at (844) 475-9529. Hablamos Español. Memorial Day Is the Deadliest Holiday of the Year on California Roads The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and California Highway Patrol consistently rank Memorial Day weekend among the top three most dangerous holiday periods of the year, alongside Independence Day and Labor Day. Multiple factors converge on this one weekend: the unofficial start of summer travel, beach traffic surging onto the I-5 and Pacific Coast Highway, longer daylight hours allowing more driving, alcohol consumption that begins early Friday afternoon and stretches across four days, and out-of-area drivers unfamiliar with Orange County roads. Every year, the California Highway Patrol runs a Maximum Enforcement Period (MEP) over Memorial Day weekend, deploying every available trooper and […]