by Ariel Parat

A DUI (driving under the influence) is when someone operates a vehicle after they have drunk alcohol or taken drugs. Vehicle does not just mean car ” if you are operating a bicycle, airplane, or boat, or riding a horse, you can still get in trouble.

Driving under the influence is a serious crime, and is not to be taken lightly. If convicted, you will have a permanent mark on your record that may hurt you in the future and in the job market. Driving under the influence is extremely unsafe and may result in injury or death for yourself and others. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year due to drivers who were drunk or high, and its too serious of an issue for someone to ignore.

Alcohol-related collisions took 18,000 lives in 2006. This number is 40 percent of all the deaths in the US for the year that happened in traffic accidents. In addition to all the deaths, 500,000 people are hurt in alcohol-related car accidents every year.

There are many reasons why a cop would stop a driver and ask them if they are drunk or high. If there is a car accident, or if the cops are checking people at a sobriety checkpoint, or a driver did something wrong while driving, or someone called the police to report an car that was driving funny, or if the cop saw the car himself ” these are all reasons that one might get pulled over. If someone reports erratic driving, cops will track down the car and look for things like making really wide turns, not driving on your side of the street, behaving as if drunk, nearly getting into a car accident, going from lane to lane unexpectedly, driving on the sidewalk, veering from side to side, driving as slow as an old lady, stopping at weird times, and driving into traffic from the wrong direction.

If a cop has a good reason to believe that a driver is under the influence, he will flag the driver over and give them a test to see if they are sober or not. This test can be an easy to administer test like standing on one foot, reciting the alphabet, counting from one to ten backwards, or walking from one place to another in a straight line, or can use a machine to analyze the alcohol content in their breath.

If the officer thinks you are drunk, he will arrest you. Dont resist arrest, as the officer will add resisting arrest as yet another offense, and honestly, youre in enough trouble as it is. At the police station, they will probably give you a chemical test to determine if you are really drunk, and then book you.

In California, if you are arrested for driving under the influence, and it is only your first offense, you will be required to shell out a couple thousand dollars in fine, be under probation, help out through community service, be present at traffic school, and lose your license for a while. But if you accidentally slaughter someone while you were drunk or high, youre going to face much bigger consequences, including jail time and murder convictions.

About the Author:
This article is brought to you through Exclusively Criminal Defense, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney firm. We have skilled Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers with over 20 years of experience.

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