Cities With High Teen Auto Crashes

Were you aware that auto crashes are the number one killer of teenagers in America? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), automobile crashes are more common among young drivers than any other age group. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, twenty-three percent of teenage drivers in fatal car wrecks had a blood-alcohol level (BAC) above the legal limit of .08.

Consider some of these statistics:

Are Young Women Safe Drivers?

According to the American Automobile Association, while men remain to be the most frequent drunken drivers, there is an increasing number of young women who are being arrested for drunk driving.

Stephen Bloch, a researcher from AAA, says that DUI cases for women between the ages of 21 to 24 have doubled in the last 10 years. In San Diego County, the fatal incidents involving women with ages 18-24 increased by 124%, from 49 accidents to 110.

Bloch said that this unlikely increase may have been caused by the growing number of young female celebrities being arrested because of DUI. In 2007, Lindsay Lohan was arrested after running her vehicle up a curb. The actress failed the sobriety tests and was sentenced to 10 days of community service. Other high profile DUI arrests involve Nicole Ritchie and Paris Hilton.

Block noted that men’s involvement with drunken driving is not increasing while women’s statistics has risen significantly. He believes that among the factors that have affected this number are the number for women taking the wheel and logging more miles.

Block also blames the intense marketing of alcohol to females in the rise of drunken women-related accidents. He said that alcoholic beverages have become more appealing to the female demographic with the introduction of sweeter drinks.

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What’s Just As Dangerous As Drunk Driving?

Early this summer the state of California began enforcing the law that prohibits drivers from talking on a cell phone.  Now you see many people with a bluetooth in their ear, but there are still people out there who either 1) don’t know about the law or 2) don’t care about the new law.  I even see people texting on their cellphone!

Texting and Driving

I’ve talked before about how talking on a cell phone is more dangerous than drunk driving.  Did you know that text messaging while driving is also more dangerous than drunk driving?  It’s amazing that people would even consider text messaging while driving.  What happened to a little common sense?

Last Friday I was involved in a car accident in which a driver hit my boyfriend and from behind while we were at a stop light.  Of course we didn’t see it coming because the hit came from behind, but we assume that the other driver was probably on her phone at the time she hit us.  My boyfriend and I suffered minor back pains.  Thank Goodness that we have a big truck that reduced the impact.  Otherwise, I think we wouldn’t be so ok.

Have you been arrested for drunk driving in San Diego?  Make sure to hire an experienced San Diego DUI lawyer.

Photo Credit: Steven Parker

DUI Statistics

• First-time DUI offenders who were required to install ignition interlock devices in their vehicles were 60% less likely to be arrested for another DUI than those who didn’t use the interlock device (Source: Alcoholism Blog)
• Drunk drivers who were involved in fatal crashes and registered a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher were eight times more likely to have a prior DUI conviction than were drivers with no alcohol – 8% and 1%, respectively (Source: Alcohol Alert)
• Men between the ages of 18 to 20 reported drunk driving more often than any other age group (Shults et al. 2002, Quinlan et al. 2005)
• Alcohol kills 6½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined (Source: Mothers Against Drunk Driving).
• Alcohol-related traffic fatalities account for 41% of all traffic fatalities (Source: The Century Council).

These statistics will hopefully make you really think about the consequences of drunk driving. Is it really worth risking your life and the lives of others?

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A Few Reasons a Breathalyzer May Fail

It’s been said that breathalyzers are unreliable. Here are a few reasons that a breathalyzer test may fail:

1) Radio frequency interference – any electronic device that is close to the breathalyzer can interfere with the energy emitted by breathalyzer machine which can cause incorrect results

2) Failure of law enforcement to provide regular maintenance on the machines – any machine that doesn’t receive adequate maintenance is due to break down sooner or later

3) The cop administering the test may not use the machine properly which can alter the test result

What do you think about breathalyzers?

If you’ve been charged in San Diego for drunk driving and feel that you’ve been falsely arrested, you need an experience San Diego DUI attorney to help you. Time is of the essence!

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