Penalties for Drunk Driving in the U.S.

The driving under the influence in U.S. law is considered a crime and sanctioned on the basis of various Articles of the Rules of the road. The state of being drunk is, in essence, is that condition of psycho-physical alteration due to the taking of alcoholic substances and the behavior of the subjects in it (Grant , 2016). It involves a distorted perception of reality, a diminution of intellectual faculties and a slowing down of reflections. The alcohol level and the methods of assessment 

For the state of punishment to be punishable under the Road Code, U.S. law has established that the alcohol level should exceed 0,5 g / l. The assessment of alcohol overcapacity generally occurs in accordance with law, through blood tests or, in the immediate aftermath, by means of an instrumental examination carried out with a special device, called the ethylometer. Herein, the driver is subjected to assessment is required to exhale and can measure the amount of alcohol present in the blood by measuring the amount of alcohol present in the air (Hansen, 2015). The assay using an ethyl ether is repeated two times at a distance of five minutes from each other. However, jurisprudence has in certain cases recognized the legitimacy of an immediate assessment of the driver's condition of a vehicle by evaluating one or more symptomatic indices such as irascibility, inability to walk or to do so in a coordinated way, the inability to speak, among others. 

The criminal and administrative penalties in case of driving under the influence, in recent years dramatically tightened, varying according to the BAC ascertained. In any case, however, there is a ten-point decoupling from the driving license (Hansen , 2015). In the details, in the case of alcoholic beverages between 0.5 and 0.8 g / l, the sanction is only administrative and consists of a fine and suspension of the license of three to six months. In the case of driving with an alcoholic strength of between 0.8 and 1.5 g / l, the sanction is both penal and administrative and consists of a fine, in the arrest of up to six months and the suspension of license from six months to one year. Finally, when driving with a BAC greater than 1.5 g / l, the penalty, both criminal and administrative, is in the fine and arrest from six months to one year, the suspension of a one-to-two-year license, in preventive sequestration of the vehicle and confiscation, unless the owner is different from the driver, in which case the duration of the driving license is doubled (Hansen, 2015). In the event of a biennial recurrence, the license is revoked. In any case, unless there is a road accident, the arrest can always be replaced by socially useful work, which can render the crime extinct, revoke the confiscation and halve the period of suspension of the license if done positively. 

Where a driver of a vehicle objects to the finding by refusing to submit to alcohol, the law provides that he is sanctioned in the same way as if he were in the worst state of drunk driving, with the fine, arrest from six months to a year, as well as license suspension from six months to two years and the confiscation of the vehicle, if he or she owns it. That is, of course, that the case in the most serious offense. Drivers under the age of 21 or who have been granted a driving license for less than three years or are professional drivers and are doing their business cannot drive after taking any alcohol, even in small quantities (Redelmeier & Detsky , 2017). For these subjects, alcoholic beverages ranging between 0 and 0.5 g / l will impose a fine and the reduction of five points on the license. The one with a rate ranging between 0.5 and 0.8 g / l will result in an increased penalty of 1/3 compared to the ordinary one, the guide with a rate between 0.8 and 1.5 g / l above 1.5 g / l leads to an increase in ordinary sanctions of 1/3 to half. Only for buses, coaches and vehicles intended for the carriage of persons whose number of seats other than that of the driver is greater than eight or vehicles intended for the carriage of goods with a total mass greater than 3 to 5 tonnes - in case of detection of an alcoholic excess of more than 1.5 g / l - is the revocation of the license foreseen. For other categories, the withdrawal is only in case of recurrence during the three-year period. A driver under the age of 18 years and with an alcoholic strength greater than zero can only obtain a driving license for the nineteenth or twenty-first years of age, depending on whether the alcoholic rate established is less than or equal to 0.5 g /l. In the event of a drunk driver driving a car accident, the penalties are doubled and, unless the vehicle belongs to a person other than the driver, are subject to a 180-day administrative detention. In addition, if the accident is caused by a person with an alcoholic strength above 1.5 g / l, the driver's license will be revoked (Alonso et al., 2015). Finally, the law provides that if the road accident leads to the death of third parties, the drunkenness of the driver is an aggravated murder. 

While driving under the influence of alcohol is strongly condemned by law, it is also condemned by car insurers who sanction risky behavior. An above-average blood alcohol level constitutes an exclusion of guarantees in virtually all auto insurance contracts. Damage to the responsible driver or his vehicle will never be covered by the insurer, even under an all-risk contract. Only the harm done to the victims will be covered in the context of civil liability. Moreover, after termination of the contract, it is very likely that the driver will have difficulty finding an insurance company willing to accept its history. There are. However, professionals specialized in the protection of terminated drivers. These offers have the merit of displaying advantageous rates, associated with good levels of guarantees. To facilitate their searches, the terminals can turn to a car insurance comparator and access many free quotes. 

However, the Criminal law can only play a secondary role and, if not residual, since it is always late: the penalty is when death or injury results have already occurred and, in this sense, there is nothing else to do. In addition, even if drunk drivers would have the effect desired by the promoters of penal reform, the fact is that this circumstance contributes a much smaller number of dead and wounded compared with that attributed to other causes that they must also be taken care of and controlled (Hansen & Waddell , 2017). As if this were not enough, the penal system already has enough tools to punish those who lead vehicle in a state of intoxication and cause the death of another. Another thing is, of course, the use that is made of the same. The intervention in this area, by the design of public policies should be consistent with a policy statement, not only criminal. Recognizing the limitations of human and logistic aspects of the criminal education and prevention are called to play a much more important role that criminal law, whose terms that have been discussed in recent years. 

References  

Alonso, F., Pastor, J. C., Montoro, L., & Esteban, C. (2015). Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk, and punishment:  Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy ,  10 (1), 11. 

Grant, D. (2016). A structural analysis of US drunk driving policy  International Review of Law and Economics ,  45 , 14-22 

Hansen, B. (2015). Punishment and deterrence: Evidence from drunk driving.  The American Economic Review ,  105 (4), 1581-1617. 

Hansen, B., & Waddell, G. R. (2017). Legal Access to Alcohol and Criminality:  Journal of Health Economics . 

Redelmeier, D. A., & Detsky, A. S. (2017). Clinical action against drunk driving,  PLoS medicine ,  14 (2), e1002231.