There are many people who own vehicles and drive in Philadelphia every day. These drivers have a duty to drive responsibly to protect themselves and the other drivers on the road. To assist in keeping everyone safe, there are also many traffic rules and laws that drivers must obey. These laws include speed limits, stop lights, signs, lanes and many others.
One of the other laws is that the driver cannot be intoxicated while they are driving. Police say that a driver recently broke that law. This driver crashed into a police car that was blocking traffic on a road where police were investigating a crime. The driver was brought to a hospital after the accident and was allegedly intoxicated at the time. Outside of there being an accident, the police did not indicate why they believed that the driver was intoxicated.
If the driver is charged with a DUI, he must go through the criminal justice process to determine if he is guilty of the crime. If convicted though, he could be facing serious penalties though. These include possible jail time, fines, ignition interlock, license suspension and others.
The severity of the penalty depends on a number of factors that include the person’s BAC at the time, whether they had a previous DUI and others. In general, higher BACs result in severe penalties.
Many people in Philadelphia are charged with a DUI. Simply being charged does not mean that the person is guilty of the crime. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and there may be defenses available to the accused. These defenses often times start with whether the police had a valid reason to stop the driver in the first place. It is important to understand these defenses to protect one’s rights.
Source: CBS Philly, “Police officer injured after being struck by suspected drunk driver,” Jan Carabeo, Sept. 29, 2016
