Law enforcement officials are well aware that holiday merriment often means drinking spirits with friends and family, so they increase their numbers on the streets in search of those driving under the influence (DUI). If you are going to be visiting others between now and New Year’s Day, be aware that you encounter trouble with the law if you haven’t been careful. You might also be arrested while under the legal limit due to a mix of Oklahoma’s driving while intoxicated (DWI) laws and overzealous police forces looking for offenders behind every wheel.
Keep these tips in mind when driving this holiday season:- Designate a driver: Drinking and driving just don’t mix safely. Please never attempt to drive, even short distances, if you have had enough alcoholic beverages to impair yourself. Using the age-old trick of assigning someone as the sober designated driver for the night will both dramatically reduce your chances of getting in an accident and eliminate the chances of you getting a DUI.
- Wait another hour: The average person takes an hour to metabolize and process the amount of alcohol found in the average beer or shot of liquor. If you have had two drinks and two hours have not passed since your last sip, for example, you are probably still drunk and could be over the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit of 0.08%. However, Oklahoma police can arrest you for a DWI if you are over 0.05% and under 0.08% and exhibiting dangerous driving behaviors. To play it safe, wait one more hour than the number of drinks you have had before trying to drive.
- Use Uber: In today’s age of smartphones in every pocket, driving drunk should be nonexistent. On most cellphones, Uber, Lyft, or other ridesharing service apps come preinstalled. Use it when you need to get home but can’t drive yourself due to intoxication. Or, you can be old-fashioned and call a taxi.
- Comply at checkpoints: Expect more sobriety checkpoints on the road than usual around the holidays and know how to behave if you encounter one. Get your license ready, make slow deliberate movements, and be respectful to the officers. You need to show them that you are not a danger on the road, and acting nervous or suspicious goes opposite that objective.
Sometimes all the precaution and carefulness in the world cannot prevent you from running into trouble with the law and getting arrested for a DUI. If you do find yourself in need of legal assistance, you can contact our Normal criminal defense attorneys at Law Offices of Keith J. Nedwick, P.C. We can back your case with more than 50 years of combined legal experience and a positive history of criminal case results.