Thu. December 28, 2000
Mill Valley, CA -
When Americans go out to celebrate New Year's Eve, one unfortunate consequence is a major increase in alcohol related traffic accidents, and alcohol related accident deaths.
Last year (1999) there were 15,786 deaths from alcohol related traffic accidents according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In fact, alcohol was a factor in 38% of all traffic crashes nationwide.
State laws against driving under the influence of alcohol ("DUI") or driving while drunk ("DWI") keep on getting tougher, according to FreeAdvice.com (www.FreeAdvice.com) the most complete source of free legal information on the Internet. Currently 20 states, including California, have laws that treat anyone driving with a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.8% as an automatic DUI or DWI; the remaining states use a less stringent 1.0% limit. It takes as few as 3 small drinks for a 137 pound woman to reach the .08 limit, and a person can be convicted of DUI solely on the basis of the test results.
Even tougher laws are coming. New Federal legislation passed in 2000 requires all remaining states to adopt the tougher limits by 2004 or lose Federal highway funds.
In addition to tougher laws, there are much tougher attitudes toward DUI/DWI on the part of most police departments and state highway patrols nationwide according to the FreeAdvice.com's founder and CEO, Gerry Goldsholle. "Organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (www.MADD.org) and the media have done a commendable job educating the public that drinking and driving are a lethal combination."
For additional information on DUI/DWI (such as answers to such questions as "Can I Refuse To Take Field Sobriety Tests?") or any of 125 other legal topics, visit FreeAdvice.com. Those charged with DUI can go to a sister site -- www.AttorneyPages.com -- which is endorsed by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and has links to thousands of attorneys located throughout the country.
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