9 Interesting Facts To Know About Drunk Driving

Driving a vehicle after drinking alcohol is never a good idea. And, of course, DUI charges are quite serious, implying plenty of different unpleasant legal penalties as well as consequences.

With that said, there are some facts about drunk driving that you are going to be genuinely surprised to learn. For instance, were you aware that you can be arrested for DUI even if you are in a vehicle that is not moving? And just how many drinks will you need in order for you to become impaired according to the law? Well, here are some facts about drunk driving that you have probably never heard about.

1. Odds are, you never knew that you can just as easily be charged with DUI, even if you are simply sitting in your car after having a few drinks and waiting to sober off. Well, if you are sitting in the driver’s seat and if your keys are in the ignition, any law enforcement officer will be able to arrest you and charge with DUI – such is the law. So, if you have decided to sober off a bit, make sure that you find the right spot – on your backseat maybe.
2. The official statistical data that is presented by the CDC is stating that more than a million people is arrested for DUI every single year. Of course, the number may well seem to be huge at first, but this is only a mere fraction – 1% from all the DUI accidents that occur nationwide all the time.
3. Back in 2013, nearly ten thousand people died in DUI related accidents. This means that nearly a third of car accident victims were involved in DUI accidents. Nearly 200 of those victims were children and almost half of them were in the same vehicles as the drunk drivers. Food for thought, is it not?
4. Regardless of the amount of alcohol in the blood, younger people are more in danger of becoming victims of drunk driving. The official statistical data also indicates that young people who are 21-24 years of age, are becoming victims of DUI accidents much more often than the more experienced and older individuals.
5. The amount of alcohol that you will need to drink in order to become impaired is very much different for people of different physical constitution. Of course, if you weigh 180 pounds, you will need about three drinks or more in order to become intoxicated. At the same time, if you weigh about 120 pounds or even less, one drink is going to be more than enough for you to suffer from impairment.
6. In case that you had only one beer and you do have a healthy liver, expect to sober up quicker – within an hour or so. However, of course, if you had more drinks, you will probably sober up for a longer period of time – take about one hour for every beer you had.
7. The official statistical data also points out that drunk drivers do not buckle up in most of the cases. And, of course, this does imply that 75% of fatal DUI accidents could be avoided if the driver would simply fasten the seat belt.
8. In some of the states both DUI and DWI mean the same – these imply driving under the influence, regardless of what may have caused the influence to begin with – drugs or alcohol. However, in other states DWI means driving under the influence of alcohol while DUI means driving under the influence of drugs.
9. All of the states do have a zero-tolerance law for underage drivers. This does imply that if mature drivers may be driving if their BAC is below 0.8%, for drivers under 21 the given threshold is lowered down to 0.2%.

Odds are, you never knew some of the above-mentioned facts and really discovered some of them just now. Perhaps these will be helpful to you and may even help you see how dangerous DUI may really be. Of course, if you or your loved ones were charged with DUI, the first thing you will want to do would be getting in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experienced Sacramento DUI attorney. If you need more information about drunk driving defense, call our law office to get the information you need.