Zero Tolerance in DUI Cases in Charleston and elsewhere in South Carolina?
The South Carolina Department of Public Safety has campaigned a theme of zero tolerance regarding drinking and driving. But what does that mean? Does the warning come with an explanation? What does the law provide?
I cannot say it enough. No person deserves to be harmed by another person for any reason including the misuse of an automobile whether by speeding, sleeping at the wheel or when his or her, at the law provides, mental faculties are appreciably and materially impaired by the ingestion of alcohol or drugs.
The law is not a loophole. The law is the law.
Our society is based on the daily use of motorized vehicles. Another component of our society involves the use of alcoholic beverages.
Tourism in South Carolina is a significant industry. The food and beverage components of this industry are huge. It is what it is.
If you drink and never operate an automobile, you don't need to be reading this.
If you operate an automobile and do not drink, you don't need to be reading this.
If you drive and drink alcoholic beverages you need to know what THE LAW provides. If you do not, your life and the lives of others can be significantly effected.
A simple choice is not to drive after drinking anything. But that is not what South Carolina law makes illegal. The decision is personal. Considering current police enhanced DUI enforcement practices, the only way to ensure that you are not arrested for DUI is not to have anything to drink when driving. (However, if an officer believes that you are impaired, e.g., by the ingestion of drugs, prescribed or illicit, he may investigate and arrest you for DUI.)
But when the phrase ”zero tolerance“ is publicized, what is it meant to mean?
Is the suggestion that any level of ingested alcohol makes a person illegal to drive? And therefore subject to arrest?
Or is it meant to suggest that all DUI arrests will be prosecuted?
It isn't clear. That's for sure.
If meant to suggest that any level of ingested alcohol renders a driver driving illegally and subject alone to arrest, there is a problem. The law. The law is clear.
You can read it for yourself. And when you do, you will realize why accuracy in detection of alcohol is so critical. The measurements are in hundredths of percent. Which, as you will read below, can make all the difference in the world if YOU are accused of DUI.
Section 56-5-2950 of the SC Code, as amended, provides at section (b)(1):
“If the alcohol concentration was at that time five hundredths of one percent or less, it is conclusively presumed that the person was not under the influence of alcohol.” (emphasis added).
Considering this provision of law, zero tolerance cannot mean that if you have anything to drink and drive you are violating the law. NOTE: This is what the law provides. I am not advocating any form of drinking and driving and want that to be very clear. As I have said, considering enhanced police enforcement practices of late, the best personal decision might very well, despite this law, be to not drive after drinking anything.
But this law has “been on the books” for decades.
Maybe a policy position would be to amend this law and make any level of alcohol evidence of impairment. In all my years of practicing I have never heard of this proposed.
