Wilmington NC Drunk Driving Defense Law Blog

While many communities in North Carolina and around the country have gone on crusades attempting to rack up high numbers of drunk driving charges against motorists, many of these arrests do not ultimately wind up with a conviction.

Last year in one county, for example, prosecutors indicated that hundreds of pending cases would have to be dismissed because of such things as an arresting officer leaving the police force for good. In that county, as many as 705 drunk driving cases could be thrown out. Amazingly enough, some pending cases appeared to be as much as 11 years old without the accused having yet had their trial to be able to clear their name of these damaging accusations.

When a person is pulled over by police and questioned for driving impaired, that person may choose to refuse a breath test. Some medical conditions, such as asthma or diabetes, may prevent a person from taking a breath test. However, in North Carolina the mandatory penalty for breath test refusal is an automatic one year suspension of a driver's license, whether or not the driver is eventually found convicted of being impaired.

In some situations, and attorney may want to question the validity of the breath test results and challenge the admissibility of this type of evidence in a court hearing. Breath tests are given to motorists who are under the suspicion of being impaired, but the tests are given under a variety of circumstances that may cause inaccurate readings. An accurate reading is essential, as the penalties for a blood alcohol level any higher than a 0.08 can result in a drunk driving conviction.

In a recent North Carolina case, a male motorist was charged with DWI who already has three prior convictions for the same offense. The motorist's driver's license was previously revoked after those convictions, and many motorists accused of driving while intoxicated wind up with a suspended license or one that is revoked.

In many instances, however, such motorists may, out of necessity, continue to drive to get to work, school, or to simply get around. As this case illustrates, suspending or revoking a driver's ability to legally drive may not really be a solution for a problem, but simply a way of sweeping it under the rug. While some express satisfaction with "get tough" policies, wouldn't it have been more beneficial, for the driver and for other motorists on the road, if the driver had been instead encouraged or given incentives to seek help for a possible addiction?

North Carolina police recently arrested a college quarterback, charging him with underage drinking of alcohol as well as exceeding the speed limit. The coach of the student's football team, based on existing policy, suspended the player for approximately a week. The same team had another quarterback who suffered a number of similar suspensions based on underage drinking, which finally resulted in him being thrown off of the team. In his case, multiple charges of alcohol related behavior essentially wound up ruining his college football career.

The school's football coach did comment, however, that if he were to suspend every team member who had drank a beer while being underage, there might be few team members left. That is why the suspension he recently handed out was relatively brief, and he has indicated that he is not sure that a harsher attitude would really accomplish much of anything. While it is true that underage consumption of alcohol is illegal, youthful experimentation should not be the basis for branding someone a criminal for life.