California DUI Charges

In California it is considered to be a really serious offence to drive while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. Even the use of legal drugs for various conditions or illnesses, if there are warnings against driving while taking them, and these are ignored, these violations are regarded in a serious light. If you have been apprehended for these offences, you need to take serious steps to get an experienced California DUI defence attorney. You are seldom likely to get a decreased penalty or sentence, but a good attorney ought to be able to prevent an increased penalty. The harsh laws against DUI are an attempt to prevent the horrendous loss of life and injuries caused by alcohol involved accidents. In 2009 the following figures for California were released concerning statistics for 2007: * 1,489 people were killed in 2007 directly as a result of alcohol use. This is 32% out of a total of 3,967 total auto accident fatalities. About 30,780 people were injured in alcohol related accidents in the same year. Approximately 65% of all automobile accidents occurring between midnight and 2 am were alcohol related. 31% of alcohol related accidents occurred at weekends, compared with only 15% on weekdays, and 36% occurred at night compared with 9% that happened during the daylight hours. * There were 203,866 DUI arrests. Over 81% of drivers arrested for DUI were male. The average age was 30 years old. * Fewer than 1% of drivers arrested on DUI charges were under the age of 18, but horrifyingly, 30% of all alcohol related fatalities were drivers between 15 and 24 years old. Even so, in 2007 fatalities of people under the age of 16 years decreased by 17% compared with the previous year. * Country wide, it is believed that about 5,000 under age young people die from alcohol-related injuries every year. An estimated 20% of children killed in auto accidents were in the company of DUI drivers. * About 75% of convicted DUI drivers were alcoholics or regular heavy drinkers. Drivers killed with very high blood alcohol levels are eight times more likely to have been previous offenders than other DUI drivers. * 66% of drivers killed, who had high levels of blood alcohol were not wearing seat belts. * The mandatory suspension of DUI drivers’ licenses in 1990 is known as ‘admin per se’. In 2007, more than 192,000 licenses were suspended. * In twelve months, 2007/8, a California DUI program enrolled 150,484 drivers. * In 2007 alcohol related fatalities dropped by 6.8%. So it would seem that even though the measures being taken did not solve the problem, they did help somewhat. If you are a DUI offender, whatever your reason for drinking and driving, or being on drugs and driving, you need to contact a really good California DUI attorney as soon as possible, so that he can look into the matter and start building up your DUI defence, without delay.

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