By now, if you don’t know the dangers of drinking and driving you must be living in a cave. Nonetheless, a reminder never hurts. In addition, it may not be you who did the drinking. It could be the other guy. Mothers against Drunk Driving has a good article on this.
It’s a good idea, especially late at night, to be on the lookout for erratic behavior by other drivers.
Potential drunk or drugged driver behavior
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- Weaving between lanes
- Excessive speeding
- Driving too slow
- Erratic Braking
- Crossing the center line
- Turning abruptly
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At a blood alcohol level of .08 you are driving drunk in New York State. At .05 you are legally impaired. But did you know that even a single drink can reduce your reaction time, your judgement and your coordination? And, a drunk driver is four times more likely to become involved in a crash.
We should all be concerned about the safety of others on the road, as well as our own safety. But if that isn’t enough to move your needle, then consider the costs. If charged with driving intoxicated can cost you in the neighborhood of $10,000. Plus, you will lose your license for 90 days. Let’s examine some of these costs.
Costs for Drunk Driving
The fine for alcohol offenses range can be as high as $10,000. In addition to fines, court surcharges apply to each offense and range from $260 for conviction of DWAI, a violation, to $520 for a Felony offense.
Separate from fines and surcharges, a $750.00 Driver Responsibility Assessment is levied by the Department of Motor Vehicles, in addition to typical fees for re-issuing a license.
In order to be eligible for conditional license, a fee of $200 to $225 is paid to for attendance of the NYS Drinking Driver Program. If referred for alcohol and substance abuse evaluation, each offender is responsible for the cost of treatment not covered by insurance.
So, with all of these costs, each offender must add the cost of a Lawyer to represent them in Court. These fees can go from $1500 to $8000.
We talk about Drinking and Driving heavily in our online defensive driving course.