California Road Deaths Surge as Inland Empire Attorney Urges Stronger DUI Enforcement, Insurance Safeguards

Nearly 40,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been injured on California roads over the past decade, according to a Dec. 11 CalMatters investigation. The report found repeat drunk drivers and chronic speeders often stay on the road as officials with the power to intervene fail to act.

Saloni Singh, CEO and principal attorney of Singh Law HQ in Riverside, said the scale of the loss is devastating — and often avoidable.

“It was how preventable so many of these deaths were,” Singh said. “Every crash represents a family that will never be the same.”

CalMatters reported that roadway deaths fell for years before turning upward again after about 2010, with fatalities rising sharply in the years following the pandemic. Singh said the post-COVID increase stood out to her as both alarming and confusing, given how widely impaired-driving prevention has been taught for decades.

“Seeing those data points and seeing the rise in the past five years post Covid sent more of a shock through me,” she said.

Asked what could better prevent impaired driving and repeat offenses, Singh said California should consider tougher, more consistent tools for keeping chronic offenders off the road — beyond license suspensions.

“There should be more forceful or more tactful ways to make sure that person by no means gets on the road,” she said, while acknowledging that enforcement can be difficult in a state as large as California.

Singh also argued that DUI enforcement should be more routine than occasional.

“Police should be better aware, set up more DUI checkpoints…and not just from time to time,” she said. “That could help.”

The CalMatters investigation described California as having some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation and reported that DUI-related deaths have been rising more than twice as fast as the rest of the country. Singh said she had assumed California would be tougher on impaired driving.

“I did not know that California had the weakest DUI laws in the country,” she said. “But learning about that was also a shock.”

She said stronger laws and consistent enforcement matter, but that individuals also need to treat safe driving and insurance coverage as non-negotiable.

“People need to understand that insurance isn’t just paperwork,” Singh said. “It’s basically a lifeline for you when these things do happen.”

With holiday parties and year-end gatherings increasing the risk of impaired driving, Singh urged people to plan transportation ahead of time rather than guessing about impairment.

“Still, the best thing to do is have a designated sober driver,” she said.

For people hit by a suspected impaired driver, Singh said the immediate steps are the same as any serious crash: gather information that can help determine coverage and liability.

“Get the insurance information, get the license plate number, the vehicle model and year, and make sure you get as much information as you can,” she said.

Singh said she is seeing more cases complicated by a growing number of uninsured drivers — and by the misconception that “full coverage” automatically protects someone when the other driver has little or no coverage.

“Just because you have full coverage doesn’t mean that you have underinsured or uninsured motors coverage,” Singh said.

She recommended that drivers review their policies and consider uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage as a safeguard.

“It essentially is protection you buy for yourself because the system may not protect you,” she said. “You don’t control what the other person on the road has.”

“If you’re hit by a driver with no insurance or minimal coverage, your own policy may be the only thing standing between you and financial ruin,” she said, pointing to costs such as medical bills, lost income and long-term care.

Beyond impaired driving, Singh said speeding is a dominant factor in serious collisions she sees.

“Speed is the number one factor from what we’ve seen,” she said.

She also pointed to distracted driving — especially phone use — as increasingly common, stressing that her observation is informal but troubling.

“Any car you turn to on the streets and freeways, one out of every two cars, the driver’s on their phone,” Singh said. “That’s my personal observance.”

Singh said late-night and early-morning hours can be especially dangerous, based on when incidents are often documented. “I believe it’s anytime between midnight to 6 AM,” she said.

Singh questioned why decades of education campaigns have not curbed dangerous choices behind the wheel and said she believes a broader cultural shift is needed.

Singh Law HQ is located at 3651 3rd St., Riverside, and can be reached 24/7 at (951) 544-1418.