DWI Information
There are tremendous pressures to "do something". In 1997, according to the United States Department of Transportation, 38.6% of all traffic deaths were there were alcohol-related -- a total of 16,189 alcohol-related traffic deaths. (Fifteen years earlier, in 1982, alcohol-related deaths represented 57.3% of that year's 43,945 total traffic fatalities.)
In addition, a study done by the National Highway Safety Administration reported that the risk of a driver with a 0.10% blood alcohol content (BAC) being in fatal accident is many times greater than a driver with a 0.08% BAC.
Despite the fact that drivers are leaglly drunk at between 0.08% - 0.10% depending on the state, the head of the Montana State Police stated that the average driver arrested for a DUI in Montana has a 0.17% BAC. Thus most of those arrested for a DUI or DWI are way over the line.
DWI Information
You may also be guilty of DUI / DWI for driving when your physical abilities are impaired by drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol. In the eyes of the law, it makes no difference whether the drug is legal or illegal, prescription or over-the-counter. If taking that drug impacts your senses of seeing, hearing, talking, walking and/or judging distances, you may be guilty of a drunk driving offense.
DWI Answers
In most states, there are three ways of determining how much alcohol you have in your system: breath or blood (and in 8 states, including California, urine). Usually, you can choose which test you want to take.
If you choose breath, you will blow into a machine called a Breathalyzer that will determine the blood alcohol in your breath. Many jurisdictions permit you to have a second test and/or a blood or urine test. This is because a breath sample is not saved and so cannot later be re-analyzed by the defense.