How Drivers Can Plan for a Safe Memorial Day Holiday
The upcoming Memorial Day holiday is a great chance for you to enjoy an extra day off from work to spend with friends and family. The upcoming holiday is also a huge weekend for police officers who usually increase their presence on streets and highways. Extra officers are sent to local high traffic areas to monitor roadways for drunk drivers. The Texas Department of Public Safety even offers extra money through grants to local police departments to fund extra officers with overtime pay to focus on specific traffic related crimes. These programs are referred to as STEP (“Selective Traffic Enforcement Program”) and they are widely used during Memorial Day weekend. If you are planning on celebrating the Memorial Day Weekend with alcohol or other substances, you need to plan a sober ride in advance. Police Departments will have extra officers patrolling major highways and areas around bars and other popular drinking locations.
Officers will likely suspect you are intoxicated if:
- They smell alcohol on your breath
- It very late at night
- They’ve observed you driving erratically
Typically, the officer will run your driver’s license to confirm your identity and check for warrants. An officer may at that time ask you if you have been drinking or using drugs. Once they have the warrant check completed, an officer that suspects you are intoxicated will ask you to exit the vehicle. The officer will ask you more questions about your activities that night, and they may tell you they need to perform a series of tests to make sure you are okay to drive. Please understand, once the officer tells you this, you are headed down the driving while intoxicated path and your chances of being arrested and identified as intoxicated are extremely high. The officer will have you perform a Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST). Once the set of 3 tests are performed, the officer will decide whether to arrest you or not. No matter how well you think you have performed, the officer will likely tell you the results indicated intoxication.
What Happens if I’m asked to Take a Breath or Blood Test in Texas?
Once you are arrested for driving while intoxicated, the officer will read a document. The document’s purpose is to explain the consequences of refusing to give a breath or blood test. Once the document is read, the officer will ask you to supply a breath or, more likely, a blood test. The officer transports you to a hospital for a blood draw if you consent. If you refuse to consent, the officer will likely prepare a search warrant to get a judge to order a blood draw for testing purposes. You need to know that regardless of the blood or breath test results, you are going to jail at this point. The officer’s warnings state you are already under arrest for driving while intoxicated. You are not going to get out of this situation right now. If you voluntarily consent to a blood test or breath test, there are fewer areas for your lawyer to challenge the result in court later. Furthermore, there is always the chance an officer will not get a warrant, and you will not have a blood test forced on you by a court-ordered blood draw. Although the refusal of a blood draw will lead to a driver’s license suspension and can be used against you in court, it rarely helps an arrested person to voluntarily provide evidence in a driving while intoxicated investigation. Plus, you are still looking at a driver’s license suspension if you consent to the blood test and it shows you have an alcohol concentration above 0.08. The suspension period for your license will depend on your prior arrest history for DWI, the alcohol concentration level, and whether you consented or refused the test.
The Law Offices of Chris Fredericks Can Help You Fight DWI Charges
Once you are arrested for driving while intoxicated, the officer is going to read a document. The purpose of the document is to explain the consequences of refusing to give a breath or blood test. Once the document is read, the officer will ask you to supply a breath or more likely, blood test. If you consent, the officer transports you to a hospital for the blood draw. If you refuse to consent, the officer is likely going to prepare a search warrant to get a judge to order a blood draw for testing purposes. You need to know that regardless of the results of the blood or breath test, you are going to jail at this point. The officer’s warnings state you are already under arrest for driving while intoxicated. You are not going to get out of this situation right now. If you voluntarily consent to a blood test or breath test, there are fewer areas for your lawyer to challenge the results in court later. Furthermore, there is always the chance an officer will not get a warrant and you will not have a blood test forced on you by court ordered. Although the refusal of a blood draw will lead to a driver’s license suspension and can be used against you in court, it rarely helps an arrested person to voluntarily provide evidence in a driving while intoxicated investigation. Plus, you are still looking at a driver’s license suspension if you consent to the blood test and it shows you have an alcohol concentration above 0.08.
If arrested for DWI, the suspension period for your license will depend on:
- Your arrest history for DWI, and
- Your alcohol concentration level, or
- Whether you consented or refused the test
The license suspension can be appealed by your attorney, so it is important to hire a qualified criminal attorney to protect your rights. Plus, your attorney can assist you in getting an occupational license for driving if the judge suspends your driving privileges.
If you’re facing DWI charges, contact the McKinney DWI attorneys at the Law Offices of Chris Fredericks. You can call us now at (972) 474-8575 or use our convenient online contact form.