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Law Offices of Jonthan Franklin - Blog
Imagine that you are going out to celebrate your birthday or another special occasion. You may plan to meet friends, have dinner and then go to a club. Or maybe you are at a party in someone’s house watching a Monday Night Football game. You may decide to have a drink or two and feel like you are okay to drive. But on the way home, you are stopped at a DUI checkpoint. The officer suspects you have been drinking and your blood alcohol is tested and is over .08 percent. You are considered to be Driving Under the Influence.
Drunk driving campaigns are becoming extremely aggressive. Some entertainment venues such as county fairs or jubilees now have displays set up that show the public the destruction that a drunk driver can cause. Colleges and universities often have programs to raise awareness in the student body about the effects of alcohol and how being convicted for a DUI can be devastating. Organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) are instrumental in lobbying for tougher penalties and raising awareness within their communities. People are not sitting idly by and allowing drunk drivers to get off without a hitch.
In the State of California, both the officials of the courts and the Department of Motor Vehicles can suspend your driver’s license. A license can be suspended for anywhere from 30 days to an indefinite period of time depending on the seriousness of the offense. Sometimes, if your license is suspended in states such as California, you can receive a restricted license. For instance, if you were convicted of a first-offense DUI, you may be eligible for a restricted license that allows you to drive to your job and back.
If you have ever gotten behind the wheel of a car after you’ve had even just a few drinks and felt like you are fine, you could end up being charged for Driving Under the Influence (DUI). Some people do not realize that, in many communities, police officers set up sobriety checkpoints to deter drunk drivers and get them off the road. If you pull up at a sobriety checkpoint, you cannot turn your car around and if you attempt to do so, it will be a dead giveaway that you have something to hide. If police officers feel that you may have consumed alcohol, they can request that you take a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer to test your blood alcohol content level. If the results are .08 percent or more, you can be charged with a DUI.
For many years, the California Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies in California have set up DUI checkpoints to deter people from drinking and driving and also to remove drunk drivers from the road before they could cause harm to themselves or others. Depending on the agency, sobriety checkpoint dates may be announced in advance with the locations kept confidential until the day of the checkpoint.
What Does DWI Mean? DWI is the acronym which stands for Driving While Intoxicated. In some states and in California, it is known as DUI or Driving Under the Influence. An arrest for this can result in a person losing his license for a period of time and other punishments. Some DWI convictions result in jail time particularly if it is a driver’s second or third offense or if there were aggravating circumstances. People convicted for a DUI also have to pay heavy fines and may have to participate in an alcohol awareness program mandated by the court.
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