Student DUIs: Facts & Stats
This week’s blog post is brought to you by Select Insurance Group – a leading provider of high-risk, personal auto insurance. Alex, part of Select Insurance Group’s team, has contributed some awesome information regarding student DUIs and the consequences that could happen because of it.
Did you know that 15% of the licensed drivers in a state are students from the age of 16 to 24? Then you should also know that about 32% of them get involved in alcohol related clashes. That is, 62% of these teenage drivers involved in fatal accidents test beyond the legally intoxicated levels and only 24 percent of them record lower amounts of alcohol in their bloodstream. Human body systems respond differently to alcohol, some can get impaired by just a standard drink others need a whole crate to feel the effects.
Young adults do not like the ideas that they have to be treated as a teenager all the time. One out of ten teens in high school drink and drive and 1 in 5 teen drivers involved in fatal crashes had alcohol in their blood. When they step into college they learn to celebrate their new found freedom through parties. I believe they do not drink milk or soup in these parties. If you agree with me, most of the students’ parties contain a lot of alcohol. They end up driving back home drunk. Therefore, young legal drinkers are responsible for more alcohol-related fatal crashes than other notorious age groups.
Students are included amongst the minor drivers who happen to have certain privileges of driving a vehicle until they attain the age of 21. Shockingly, a third of the motor vehicle fatalities are alcohol related and 1/3 of the deaths range between the ages 15-20. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and recent studies, one out of every five college students has admitted to drunk driving.
Assuming that Students are considered as drivers under the age of 21(ages 16-20), then they fall under the Zero Tolerance Laws which requires that they should have a BAC limit of .02 or lower. Some of the students even go beyond the adult blood alcohol concentration of .08%. However, different states have different rules, some may decide that any alcohol detected in the blood stream the driver deserves an arrest that leads to a DUI. Students who are between the age of 21 and 25 will be charged and prosecuted if they test a BAC of 0.08 or more.
The fight against alcohol-related fatalities should start with parents just like charity begins at home. Most of the students are not supervised when they get their freedom to drive. Drunk driving is four times higher during the night than the day and mostly occurs during the weekend when the schools are closed. Night parties are rampant with students; they like it when they show up in a classic car. Unfortunately, some of the students steal their parent’s cars to attend certain parties, but this should not be an excuse.
Students like to have fun, but what worries most is that some of them die every year from not only alcohol poisoning but at-fault accidents. Sometimes there may be a designated driver, but the hype of carrying friends who are impaired might be dangerous. A survey done at the University of Oregon suggested that 96 percent of students take alcohol at least once a week- this figure might be as low as 50% in other universities.
Students widely use the designated driver system to avoid drinking and driving, but about 40 percent of all designated drivers have been drinking – one or two beers . It is quite common that drivers addicted to alcohol or other drugs will continue driving even with suspended licenses. Underage drinking and driving are socially unacceptable and a crime in all of the 50 states in America, but people still do it. Teen drivers are 3 times more likely be in a fatal crash or get a DUI compared to an experienced driver.
The fights against drunk driving and underage drinking have led to the decline of under 21 the number of fatalities by 63% and general drunk driving fatalities by 36%. The introduction of the Ignition interlock system and home monitoring devices has helped a lot in reducing the DUI cases. The alcohol schools programs also help reduce recidivism, since about a third of all drivers arrested and convicted of a DUI are repeat offenders. Sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol impairment cases by about 9 percent. Serious consequences associated with a DUI keeps college student away from the roads when they get drunk.
If you are a student and find yourself slammed with a DUI charge, contact Bradley Corbett, an experienced DUI attorney right away!
Bradley Corbett
Bradley Corbett is a criminal defense attorney in San Diego. He graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo Utah in 2004. Later he enrolled at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego where he participated in a prestigious internship program with the Los Angeles County Public Defender. Since then he has handled over 2,000 cases.