Motorists Charged With Drug Driving
January 19, 2013 by admin
Filed under Motoring Law
Drink driving and the legal alcohol limit
Do
Drink Driving if you are pulled over you should answer the officer’s questions honestly and accurately. Some of the questions the officer will ask you are for your benefit. If the officer asks if you have had an alcoholic drink over the past twenty minutes he/she is actually telling you that he will have to wait for twenty minutes before he carries out a test. This is because an officer has to wait until any residual traces of that alcohol which could affect the machine are gone. The same goes for any consumption such as food, smoking or using inhalers etc.
Don’t
Be obstructive. The officers are only doing their job which they will carry on with regardless of a person’s attitude. Most officers will try their best to make the process a smooth one for you but they also have the means to make it uncomfortable.
Do
Tell the officer about any medication you are currently taking. Even if the officer believes it will have no bearing on the case it is crucial to the later stages of a case that you raise the issue.
How much can I drink and stay under the drink driving limit?
There is no foolproof way of drinking and staying under the limit. The amount of alcohol you would need to drink to be considered drink driving varies from person to person. It depends on: (4)
- Your weight
- Your gender (men tend to process alcohol faster than women)
- Your metabolism
- Your current stress levels
- Whether you’ve eaten recently
- Age (younger people tend to process alcohol more slowly
Even small amounts of alcohol can affect your ability to drive so the only safe advice is to avoid any alcohol if you are driving.
How alcohol affects driving
Many of the functions that we depend on to drive safely are affected when we drink alcohol: the brain takes longer to recieve messages from the eye; processing information becomes more difficult; and instructions to the body’s muscles are delayed resulting in slower reaction times.
Blurred and double vision can also occur, which means the ability to see things correctly whilst driving is reduced. People are also more likely to take potentially dangerous risks behind the wheel if they’ve been drinking alcohol.
Driving a car whilst over the drink driving limit.
If you are caught in your car with the keys on your person then the Police can arrest you for drink driving. People believe that it is okay to sleep in their car rather than drive home but be warned – it might seem like a good idea but it could come back to sting you.
Being drunk in charge could land you with 10 points and impose a discretionary ban if you are caught so beware.
If you believe that you were in the right you are able to defend yourself against this allegation. The way to do this is to prove to the court that you would not have driven the car until all the drink was out of your body and you where legally below the limit and were safe to drive again. To prove this you will need a pharmacologists’ report which indicates how long it would take for the alcohol in your system to reduce so that you are able to drive.
As many people are prosecuted for being drunk in charge as are stopped for actually drink driving. It is up to you to demonstrate to the court that you had no intention of driving until it was safe for you to do so. This offence can be defended if you approach it correctly – ask Patterson Law Drug Driving Law Specialists how they can help you to defend this allegation and keep your licence.
Drug driving is treated in a similar way to drink driving offences. Drug use can impair your ability to drive making it dangerous to be in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of drugs. Roadside drug tests are remarkably accurate and should you fail at the roadside you will be arrested and taken to a police station where you will be tested further and if you fail these tests you will be prosecuted for the offence.
