If you think you won’t get caught for drink driving, you’re wrong. Over 100 people are convicted of drink driving across Leicestershire each month. You don’t have to be in a crash/accident to be breathalysed. The police can ask you to take a breath test if they suspect you have been drinking, or if you commit a traffic offence.
DRINK DRIVING CONSEQUENCES ARE SEVERE
If you’ve been out drinking, you may still be affected by alcohol the next day. Even though you may feel OK when you get up, you may still be unfit to drive or over the legal alcohol limit. You could still lose your licence if you drive the next day when you’re still over the legal alcohol limit. It’s impossible to get rid of alcohol any faster. The common myths such as having a shower, cup of coffee, or other ways of ‘sobering up’ will not help. It just takes time.
The Law
Here is what you can expect from the law when caught drink driving:
- A criminal record for life
- If you refuse to provide a specimen of breath, blood or urine for analysis, you will receive a 6 months’ imprisonment sentence, together with a fine of up to £5,000 and disqualification from driving for at least 12 months.
- If caught being in charge of a vehicle whilst above the legal limit or unfit through drink, you can receive 3 months’ imprisonment, a fine of up to £2,500 and discretionary disqualification from driving.
- If caught driving or attempting to drive while above the legal limit or unfit through drink, you can receive a 6 months’ imprisonment, together with a fine of up to £5,000 and disqualification from driving for at least 12 months. You can, receive a 3 years ban, if convicted twice in 10 years.
- If caught causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs, you can receive 14 years’ imprisonment, together with an unlimited fine, disqualification from driving for at least 2 years and a mandatory extended driving test.
- The possibility of receiving a community order (this can include, unpaid work, curfew, supervision and treatment orders)
Drastic life style changes
The above are just consequences from the law, The consequences of drink driving go beyond the law and can cause drastic changes to your lifestyle, as listed below.
- The possibility of losing your job:
- Your employer is likely to fire/sack you for drink-driving and the criminal record
- If the employer does not sack/fire you, you still may not be able to carry out your current job for a number of reasons
- If your current job involved driving, so you may have to find other work within the current organisation or look for other work outside if nothing else is available internally
- If your current job was some distance away from home and you used to drive to work and it’s not practical to use public transport or there’s no one to provide you with a lift to work
- If you lose your job:
- You will find it more difficult to find another job as employers are less like to employ people with criminal records
- The number of jobs available to you will be limited due to the fact that you will not be able to apply for jobs that involve driving (due to your driving ban). Your job search will be restricted to the distance your willing to travel by public transport or the availability of someone to drive you to and from a place of work
- If you can’t find work and are unemployed you will have less income within the family and therefore having a big impact on family life, as how will you continue to pay the mortgage, house bills, daily expenses, etc.
- Impact on family life:
- If you have children who will drive them to school
- If you have financial problems, this could have a huge negative impact on your relationship with spouse and children
- You’ll have less disposable family income, so you won’t be able to do the normal family social activities your accustomed to, like going to the restaurant/cinemas, family holidays, kids school trips, etc.
- Your car insurance will increase drastically if you eventually get your licence back
- You’ll have difficulty hiring a car for the next ten years
These are just some of the things a person can expect when they are convicted of a drink driving offence. The penalties are severe.
