DUI Laws and Facts

If you have been arrested for DUI, you are probably wondering what is going to happen and why DUI laws are so harsh. You are likely visualizing that the toll of a DUI arrest is massive, emotionally and moneywise. The emotional and intellectual costs of a DUI arrest are dissimilar for each person, but when it comes to the financial burden, it's standardized for everyone who has been arrested and charged with DUI/DWI.

It also costs money when your license is taken from you when you are arrested and to pay for DUI school as well as various DUI related fines and charges. You will have a temporary license, which still permits you to legally drive a motor vehicle.

Why is DUI punishable so harsh? These statistics show why the legislators have to implement such strict DUI laws.

DUI related passenger deaths raised three percent in SUVs and five percent on motorcycles in 2003.

DUI related crash human deaths totaled for 17,013 in 2003.

Drivers with a BAC higher than .08 who were killed in collapses were ten times more likely to have a prior DUI arrest and following DUI conviction

About 275,000 people suffered injuries in DUI related collapses in 2003.

Forty percent of crashes involving a drunk driver or non-occupant leaded an involved person being killed or injured.

Over 1.5 million drunk drivers are arrested for driving DUI each year. This represents one in every 130 drivers in the United States.

Motor vehicle wrecks are the leading cause of death for people ages 2-33.

The highest intoxication rates for drivers in fatal collapses were recorded for drivers ages 21-24 (32 percent), followed by ages 25-34 (27 percent) and 35-44 (24 percent).

DUI related crashes, traumas and fatalities cost our society over $45 billion in lost productivity, medical care, property damage and other direct expenditures annually.

The percentage of alcohol-related collapses in 2003 represents an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 31 minutes and one alcohol-related injury every two minutes.

The rate of alcohol involvement in fatal accidents is three times as higher at night as during the day. More than 53 percent of weekend evening accidents are alcohol related.