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DUI Viewpoints!

2006-09-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

Anderson Independent Mail: Viewpoints: "Some sober advice

Leave alcohol at home when you hit the road

September 2, 2006

More than half of the fatal crashes on South Carolina highways over the Labor Day weekend in 2005 were DUI-related.

One of them was an Anderson man who was gambling on a deadly combination. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt and his alcohol level was three times the legal limit to be considered DUI (Driving Under the Influence)

That weekend, 16 people died in just three days in 13 fatal collisions. In seven of those, alcohol was involved. During that same period, more than 430 people were injured on our roads due to people DUI.

The statewide DUI enforcement and public information program 'Sober or Slammer' through Labor Day ends the agency’s 100 Days of Summer HEAT (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic).

'Sober or Slammer' isn’t just a catch phrase, nor merely a public relations campaign. It’s serious business, aimed at reinforcing the idea of personal responsibility for our actions. It began five years ago, and its aim is twofold: to get impaired drivers off the roads before they can do any damage to themselves or others, and to educate the public on the dangers of driving after using alcohol or drugs. DUI is not an option.

If one person can be convinced to stop and think before they get behind the wheel, it could save a life. And too many have already been lost.

From 2000 to 2004, according to the SCDPS, 31.2 percent of the 5,191 people who died on South Carolina highways lost their lives in an alcohol- or drug-related crash. In 2005, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 545 people died on Georgia highways, up from 536 the year before. In South Carolina, we lost 464 people, up from 463 in 2004.

According to the NHTSA, alcohol was a factor in 39 percent of all traffic deaths in 2005. Most of those involved were male drivers ages 21 to 34. The next group to post the highest percentage of fatal accidents were men aged 35 to 44. All DUI's.

In South Carolina specifically, all drivers in the 25-34 age group were responsible for the highest number of alcohol- and drug-related crashes from 2002 to 2004. Next in the line of dubious distinction were drivers 15 to 24. More than 71 percent of all those involved in these crashes were male, regardless of age.

But it’s not just about numbers; it’s about lives, about people who will never see another sunrise.

And it’s about the lives they have changed with their careless and thoughtless actions, the property damaged, the fathers and mothers who will never come home, the young people who will never grow up, the grandmothers and grandfathers who won’t be around to see their granddaughters walk down the aisle.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, between 16,000 and 17,000 people die each year in alcohol-related DUI fatalities.
Another half-million are injured. MADD reports that a driving-under-the-influence (driving while impaired in some states) arrest occurs every 30 minutes in this country, according to statistics compiled in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report.

Even those who don’t cause irreparable physical harm to themselves or others are affected — as are their families — when arrested for driving drunk. The loss of a license can impact one’s ability to earn a living. The injuries an individual creates for himself or inflicts on others can bankrupt a family. The emotional toll of knowing you are responsible, or could have been responsible for the death of another, can be devastating.

In early August, the SCDPS and MADD recognized nine law enforcement officers and 10 agencies for efforts in combating drunk driving. Among those honored were the members of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Kris Bratcher of the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. And officers across the Southeast will work in concert, particularly in areas like our own that are close to state lines, to combat drunk driving over the Labor Day weekend, not just for alcohol-related incidents but to uphold all traffic laws.

A recent story discounted the effectiveness of roadblocks, quoting a spokesman for the American Beverage Institute who claims that because of visibility and publicity, drunk drivers can avoid roadblocks. But we disagree. While roadblocks won’t necessarily catch that many offenders, if even one is stopped in time, it’s worth the trouble. Publicity on the location of a roadblock may even keep someone off the road altogether. This may reduce the amounts of DUI.

This Labor Day, and every day, obey traffic laws. Wear your seat belt. Buckle up the kids. If you are going to drink, stay home or designate a driver. Take care behind the wheel, and not just because there’s a chance you might be caught. (Most drivers who are stopped for DUI have escaped detection several times in the past.) Do it because it’s the right thing to do.
Don’t become a statistic.

Don’t create one.

Tips to Avoid A DUI! Secrets Revealed!

2006-08-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

Tips To avoid A DUI! Secrets revealed by DUI Lawyer

If you are ever arrested for drunk driving (also called DUI for "driving under the influence" or DWI for "driving while intoxicated"), your experience will begin with an officer stopping you because of some questionable driving pattern, or possibly because you encountered a DUI "sobriety checkpoint" or you were involved in an accident. The officer will approach your car and ask some questions. You will then be asked to perform "field sobriety tests". He may also ask you to breath into a handheld device, technically called a PBT or "preliminary breath test". You will then be arrested. On the way to the police station, you will be asked to submit to a breath or blood test -- and told that if you don't, your driver's license will be suspended.

What should you do and say during all of this to minimize the risk of a criminal conviction and a license suspension?

1. Politely decline to answer any questions without a DUI Attorney present. It is a cardinal rule in legal circles that only incriminating statements are included in police reports and later testified to in court; statements pointing to innocence are invariably ignored, forgotten or misinterpreted. Bluntly put, whatever you say will almost never help you and can only hurt you.

2. Decline to take any so-called DUI field sobriety tests. These are theoretically intended to determine impairment, but in fact are designed for failure. In most cases, the officer has already made the decision whether you were DUI (Driving under the influence) and whether to arrest and is simply going through the motions to gather further evidence to bolster his case (he is the one who decides whether you "pass" or "fail"). In almost all states, you are not required to submit to this "DUI Testing". It's unlikely that taking it will change the officer's decision to arrest.

3. Decline to take a "PBT" (preliminary breath test). These handheld units are carried by officers in the field to help decide whether you were DUI and whether to arrest or. They are notoriously inaccurate. In most states, drivers are not required to submit to these tests (in some they are required if you are under 21). Although most states admit the results of these tests into evidence only to show the presence of alcohol, some permit them to prove the actual blood-alcohol level.

4. Do you choose blood, breath -- or refuse to take any DUI chemical test? This is a case-by-case decision, and involves a number of considerations. First, although blood tests are subject to many possible errors, they are generally more accurate than so-called "breathalyzers"; if you feel your blood-alcohol level is below .08%, then you might want to choose the blood test. Secondly, whether to submit to testing at all requires some knowledge of your state's laws -- specifically, the consequences of refusing. If the increased criminal penalty and license suspension do not outweigh the possible benefit of depriving the prosecution of blood-alcohol evidence, then you may wish to refuse. Bear in mind that the prosecution will charge you with two offenses, DUI and driving with over .08% blood-alcohol; without a blood or breath test, he cannot prove the .08% charge, and there will be no chemical evidence to corroborate the officer's testimony. You should also realize that in many states chemical evidence of a very high blood-alcohol level, say over .15%, can trigger more severe penalties.

5. In almost all states, your driver's license will be immediately suspended if either (1) the chemical tests results are .08% or higher, or (2) you refuse to submit to DUI testing. You have a right to a DUI hearing to contest this administrative suspension, and there are many possible defenses, many of them technical in nature. This hearing is usually separate from the criminal proceedings, and involve different procedures and issues than in court; it is not uncommon to lose the criminal case but win the suspension hearing. However, as most motor vehicle departments do not really want the time and expense of providing these hearings, they tend to provide notice of the right buried in fine print given to arrestees. The critical information is the requirement that an actual demand for the hearing must be made by the arrestee -- usually within ten calendar days. If you do not contact the DMV within ten days, you lose all rights to a hearing -- no matter how good a defense you may have. Tip 5: Get a DUI Attorney right away, or make the call yourself -- and make sure you can later prove you made the call within the ten day window!