Tampa Criminal Lawyers Help Justice System Differentiate Between Two Types of DUIs
As of December 7, 2009, there were 10,994 deaths due to drunk (or otherwise impaired by drugs) drivers. In 2008, a total of 11,773 people lost their lives due to drunk drivers which represented a 9.7 percent decrease from 2007 in alcohol impaired driving fatalities. A Tampa criminal attorney will represent someone who has been accused of driving under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol but cautions there is a limit to the number of times a person with repeat DUIs can stay out of prison.
Each state has a different rule for the number of DUIs a person can collect before a judge finally sentences them to jail time. Sometimes a judge will order a drunk driver to seek rehabilitation treatment in addition to community service or take away their driving privileges with a suspended license; however none of this seems to matter to habitual drunk drivers and people who know the law is very lenient and ‘workable’ in their favor.
There have been cases reported in the newspaper and in the evening news of drunk drivers who have killed entire families and when they check their records, the intoxicated drivers have been pulled over for DUIs or DWIs seven, eight or nine times and were given probation because they had families or jobs or were pillars of the community but none of that matters any longer.
Tampa criminal lawyers, who also represent people who have been drinking and driving or those who may have had a vehicular manslaughter charged against them, believe that there are two separate types of DUI cases. There are those people who are pulled over for the first time after having one or two glasses of wine at a wedding or other family celebration and then there are people who are continually driving while under the influence of alcohol or other substances (legal and illegal) such as prescription drugs, meth, speed, marijuana or other dangerous drugs. According to many attorneys these two types of DUI offenders should not be treated the same, however many see a drunk driver as a danger to society no matter how many drinks they have had and no matter if it’s their first time or their fifth time driving under the influence.