Every minute in America, one person is injured in an alcohol-related car accident. Tallied up, that’s over 10,000 people who die every single year from drunk driving crashes. Couple that with expensive criminal defense attorney fees, and you have a recipe for a highly disastrous decision.
In case it hasn’t been made abundantly clear to you by now, don’t drink and drive. In fact, don’t even plan to have a drink if you know you’ll have to operate your car later on in the evening. The only way to completely crush your chances of getting cited by a police officer for either driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence is to simply not have even one sip of alcohol.
In an ideal world, people would follow these tips. Of course, we know better.
But we also think we “know” a lot of information about the nature of drunk driving arrests that ends up being something we heard from a friend, who heard it from a neighbor, etc. In order to cut through all the misinformation about DWIs and DUIs, we’ve compiled this list of three popular myths people tend to believe. Then, in order to find the truth, we’ve busted them.
Myth #1: Your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) will accurately show how impaired you are.
You might have a friend who says he’s become a “pro” at driving drunk. He’s got a system, he says, where he only drinks one cocktail per hour because that’s how long it takes the body to process the alcohol. If your friend is planning to evade a DUI or DWI citation with this method, he’s in for a rude awakening.
Busted: BAC depends on a whole lot of factors including your weight and how much you’ve eaten. That means it’s constantly in flux depending on your body’s current circumstances. Additionally, even when you stop drinking or feeling drunk, your BAC could still be rising based on the booze you’ve recently put inside your system.
Myth #2: There are methods of “sobering up” quickly before you need to drive.
Anyone who’s told you about their tricks for drunk driving simply doesn’t know the science behind alcohol impairment. Sucking on old pennies, scarfing down bagels or other carb-loaded foods and drinking coffee are all noble last-ditch efforts, but they won’t help you beat the breathalyzer.
Busted: The only real way to get rid of the alcohol in your system is to wait it out. That’s bad news for someone who’s already late getting home as it is, so it looks like the only logical choice left is to call a cab and face the shame head-on.
Myth #3: Criminal defense attorney fees are cheaper if you hire an inexperienced lawyer.
The word on the street is that DUI attorney costs can be absolutely prohibitive. That’s not entirely true, but it’s close — most estimates put the total cost of legal fees at around $10,000. But younger lawyers must be cheaper, and your chances are still as good for getting off, right?
Busted: This is completely flawed thinking that’s bound to get you in even deeper hot water financially. When you’re looking for a lawyer, don’t worry about the criminal defense attorney fees up front. Stick to finding the best possible legal team you can. That’s your only hope for getting out of the charges or at the very least getting them reduced.
For more info, contact a local legal team.