Individuals facing charges can get expert help from DUI defense attorney Torrence L. Howell.
To celebrate the 4th of July holiday properly, you need three things: food, friends, and fireworks. Often, the food element of the celebration involves a cookout, and cookouts mean beer and other alcoholic beverages for many. Unfortunately, sometimes people take the celebration home with them by getting in the car before they’ve fully sobered up. This is one reason why the time around the holidays always seems to see a spike in drunk driving accidents and arrests.
We certainly saw this trend play out over this past Independence Day weekend. The California Highway Patrol designated the bulk of the weekend, from 6 pm on Friday to midnight on Sunday, as a Maximum Enforcement Period. During this time the CHP deployed the maximum amount of uniformed personnel and tasked them with responding quickly to any accidents and investigating any drivers who presented probable cause for DUI.
During this year’s Maximum Enforcement Period, Highway Patrol officers arrested 930 drivers on DUI charges across the state. Of these arrests, 229 were made right here in Los Angeles County. Despite these efforts, there were still numerous accidents over the holiday weekend, including 26 fatalities. It is not known at this time whether these fatalities were rated to alcohol impairment.
Facing Charges for a 4th of July DUI?
If you have been arrested for DUI during a Maximum Enforcement Period, it is very important to consult an experienced DUI attorney for your defense.
Why?
Because during a Maximum Enforcement Period, officers may be feeling intense pressure to keep the streets safe and save lives. This could lead them to make mistakes in the handling of your DUI stop. With an attorney’s help, it is possible to identify any such mistakes and use them to support your defense.
Possible mistakes include:
- Errors in calibration of breathalyzer equipment
- Failure to account for medical conditions that could give a false positive on breath or blood tests
- Failing to wait enough time before administering a breathalyzer
- Incorrect administration or interpretation of field sobriety tests (which are notoriously unreliable anyway)
- Errors in administration of a DUI checkpoint
Your attorney can use these types of police errors as well as many other strategies to pursue a favorable resolution to your DUI case. This could be a dropping of all charges, or potentially a reduction of charges from a DUI to a lesser charge such as a “wet reckless.”
Call Torrence L. Howell Now
If you would like advice about how to respond to your DUI charge, please contact Torrence L. Howell at 909-920-0908 to receive a free initial consultation.
