Driving & driving puts drivers and the public at risk for serious consequences
Like most laws, California’s DUI laws exist to protect the public at large—and to protect individuals from themselves. Driving while intoxicated by alcohol is never a good idea, yet every day people get behind the wheel with alcohol in their system. In fact, 1 in every 2,000 car trips is made by an alcohol-impaired driver. Because everyone’s body processes alcohol a little bit differently, it’s hard to say definitively when someone has had too many drinks to drive safely. The legal limit is a blood alcohol content of .08 percent. Unfortunately many people do decide to drive while impaired. This affects all of us at some point or another in the following ways.
Physical Effects on the Driver
The reason it is not safe to drink and drive is that alcohol affects the brain’s communication pathways, making it harder to think, react, and even move. As blood alcohol content increases, so does the interference in the brain:
- .02 BAC: some loss of judgment, altered mood, declining vision
- .05 BAC: slower eye movement, severe impairment of reaction speed
- .08 BAC: confusion, trouble understanding stimuli like road signs and traffic sounds
- 1.5 BAC: loss of motor control and coordination
- 2.0 BAC and over: exaggerated emotions, possible blackouts
Effects on the Public
Drunk driving is a very real threat to public health and safety, not to mention municipal budgets:
- Drunk driving is involved in 1 in every 3 traffic fatalities
- Alcohol-related traffic accidents kill almost 13,000 people every year
- Alcohol-related crashes cost taxpayers over $100 billion
Legal Effects of DUI Conviction
Even if you think you can drive safely while intoxicated, without posing a hazard to yourself or others, you should think twice before getting behind the wheel because you will be exposing yourself to serious legal penalties if your BAC is over the limit. Some possible penalties include:
- License suspension
- Fines of up to $1,000
- Up to 6 months in jail
- Mandatory DUI school
- Installation of an ignition interlock device
The penalties—and the rules—will only get stricter the more you drink and drive. For example, if you are a repeat DUI offender you can get in trouble for driving with a BAC as low as .01.
Get Help with DUI Charges
The sooner you contact a skilled DUI attorney after being charged with driving drunk, the better. Your attorney can immediately spring into action, setting processes in motion that will help resolve the case in the most favorable manner possible. First of all, they can help you to request and complete the DMV hearing that is needed to respond to the automatic Admin Per Se suspension that occurred during your DUI stop. This will likely help you get your license back and avoid significant hardship. Secondly, your DUI attorney can begin investigating the prosecution’s evidence and poking holes in it. For example, they might seek to prove that a sobriety test was not administered properly or that chemical test equipment used to measure your BAC was not calibrated correctly. One final helpful thing your attorney can do is attempt to get the DUI charge reduced to a “wet reckless” which is much less serious than a DUI.
Remember, though over 1.4 million drivers are arrested for DUI each year, only 780,000 of them are convicted, thanks in large part to the effort of attorneys like Dan E. Chambers.
