When allegations of drinking and driving are made, residents of New Jersey must be prepared to defend their rights. This is the situation in which an Englewood, New Jersey, man finds himself in after being charged with two counts of vehicular homicide after an incident last month.

The 50-year-old man was driving on Liberty Road earlier this month when he didn't negotiate a curve and crashed his vehicle. Of his four passengers, two were killed in the accident. The other two were treated at Hackensack University Medical Center.

The man was injured himself in the 2 a.m. accident, and he was treated for a punctured lung and for broken ribs. Investigators ruled that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident. Another complicating factor in the case is that the crash scene is less than 1,000 feet from two different schools: a middle school and a high school.

The fact that schools were nearby upgrades the vehicular homicide charges the driver is facing into first-degree vehicular homicide. The punishment for that is up to 20 years in prison.

On top of that, the driver also faces several other charges, including reckless driving, driving while intoxicating, and failure to maintain lane. His bail was set at $300,000 as he recovered from his injuries.

While the facts in this case might lead some readers to jump to conclusions about the man's culpability, he is still entitled to seek a qualified criminal defense attorney who can do everything possible to mitigate the potential punishment.

Source: NJ.com, "Englewood man faces vehicular homicide charges for crash that killed two," S.P. Sullivan, Jan. 23, 2012