Ok, lets start off with the legal blood alchole level in the state of Florida is a 0.08%.

July 05, at 340am i was driving down I-4 headed south towards my house(i had been up in ruskin at a friend's friend house. We had drank some beers and had a coke&rum followed by a shot of Jose Curevo Especial. the Jose Curevo was my last drink of the night at around 12-1230am. Me and my friend head back to his house which is about 20mins away. we stay playing a Van helsing game and some cards. after awhile i get abit drowsy and decide its time to head back home to tampa a 25mile drive from ruskin, anyways....by then my buzz had worn off and couldnt personally feel any effects from them. so i went ahead and set out for the journey home. as i got closer and closer i got drowsyer and eventually nodded off, i woke up to me speeding up to a car that was infront of me. i paniced and quickly jerked the steering wheel to the left to try and avoid the car. i lost full control of my truck and ended sideswiping the vehicle i was try to avoid. i somehow spun off of it and was launched head on into the concrete guardrails doing something along the lines of 60-70mph.....

needless to say my total front end is crushed, and their car is fairly banged up. both me and the other party are fine exspect for a few minor injuries.

now come the field soberity test. im not sure how it is supposed to be administered, but i was dizzy/confused/startled, lost my glasses and couldnt see as well as having a face full of smoke that came gushing out from behind the steering wheel getting debrie in my eyes. and c; had/have neck strains felt that i should atleast had some medical attention (note i did ask the officer 3 times if he could get one of the paramedic guys to check me if i was ok which he never did) instead im put through various test to determine if i was intoxicated or not. they then took me to booking for a breathe analyizer test and tested a 0.047% which is half less then the legal limit.

now is where im confused, am i supposed to be getting a DUI for that? even though it wasnt what caused the accident and the accident being caused by the fact that i fell asleep at the wheel? As well was i not to get medical treatment prior to the testing? what are my rights as far as medical treatment goes? if i recall they are supposed to check all people involved in the accident? and lastly but not least a puny little 0.04%BAC looks like the down fall to everything at this moment. which i think sucks cuz that equals out to 1 beer.....you drink just 1 beer and your toast if you become unfortunate like me. Oh and when are officers allowed to take a ticket back away once you sign it?...i was given a careless driving ticket that i signed and all and did not recieve it.

any comments will be greatly appericated btw.

~Q

 

You said your self you waited for the buzz to war off before driving home. You also said you fell asleap behind the wheal than awoke to find a car in front of you.

I'm not a a a expert in law, so I can't give you any advice on how to beat a D.U.I

Right now, this sould be the least of your worry's, you are so frikking lucky you did not kill any one and that your alive.

Five years ago, I had an accident were I lost control of a perfectly good car. I was going threw a rough point in my life, and even now I have a hard time admiting I was impaired, but I was.

I was also luckly that I walked away and that I did not hurt or kill any one.

Every time I have a beer, the memory of crawling out of my car, dazed and confused is a reminder to me that you simply can't expect drink and drive, than live.

So manny items can impair you, from stress, your fast food lunch, Your job, being tired, or even a tooth ache.

I'm not a saintly guy, I still like to drive fast, I still pretend I'm faster than the othier guy and sorry I was not born on a race track.

At some point in life, some of us have been were you are now to a greater, or lessor degree, but the end resault is you were impared to the point were you lost control.

Don't throw a way your 2nd chance.

 

The way the law is interpreted is >.08 is presumed intoxicated and <.08 is presumed sober. With that said you can still be found guilty of DUI with a BAC lower than .08. The conviction actually comes from the testimony of the officer/deputy/trooper. As far as not receiveing a copy of the citation. Call the department issuing it. It happens alot when we forget to give the yellow copy to the defendant. Normally it gets sent out by certified mail.

I don't know the entire circumstances surrounding the investigation, but normally when I am dispatched to a crash it takes a few minutes to receive the call, a few more minutes to dispatch it and finally a few more minutes to get on scene. By this time the people driving have normally calmed down enough to allow me to conduct a DUI investigation. Basically what I am saying is the officer not allowing you time to get over the accident is not unusual. Your injuries, again I was not there and cannot comment about how it was handled.

Just wondering how old are you? Or a better question is are you over 21? If you pay the careless fine it'll be about $70.50. The fines just went up July 1.

 

Your insurance will take care of the vehicle repair and just a careless driving ticket isn’t all that bad, considering what could have happened. Look on the bright side, no one was killed or seriously hurt. Things could have turned out a lot worse; be thankful they didn’t.

 

Not sure how it works down there, but I believe the man can slap you with a DWI (driving while influenced), reckless driving, and some others...

Face it, your gonna get mucho pts on your record and your rates are going up. Next time don't drive while sleepy.

 

Would you have been so sleepy had you not drank?

 

I had every intention of posting somemore to my drinking thread but about three hours later I was out.

When I woke up and looked in the mirror I had
'f g h j k l'
'c v b n m'
across my forehead and something that kinda looked like a spacebar.

 

hmm , well i'm from Canada, but i think that because you were under the limit means u can drive...weather you are sleepy or not. There are no laws about being sleepy and driving...although not recemmended i dont believe there is a ticket they could give u for that. There are others i'm sure they could come up with but not a DUI. Hope everything turns out well.
Alex

 

As a matter of fact there are laws against driving when sleepy. You can get a ticket for reckless driving, if they see you swerving, speeding up and slowing down. It may look like your drunk but if they pull you over and find it is because you’re sleepy they “could” write you a ticket for reckless driving or endangerment of others or how ever they may word it.

Truck drivers, (big rigs) have to maintain a log and if they are found to have not slept enough as compared to hours driven they can get some big tickets…

In my opinion it is no different driving while sleepy as compared to driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or what ever because your just as dangerous to others on the road and you can get into about as much trouble for doing so…

 

I know you can get a ticket for wreckless driving...but a normal person being sleepy isn't always wreckless....anyways, give the guy a break. He wasn't drunk so cut him some slack.

 

Take it easy? You're right, he wasn't drunk, but he was sleepy enough to fall asleep while driving. Maybe if he had hit or killed someone you care about, you would feel different. Qiterplop, I'm not blasting you, for all I know this is a one time event, I hope you learned something and that this never happens again.

 

Each and every one of us has an individual responsibility to know our own limitations, because noone knows us better than ourselves, so we have to make a decision as to whether or not we can drive every time that we get behind the wheel. You take driving for granted, and it becomes such a second nature that you as sure that you can make it sometimes, but sometimes you make a bad judgement call. Glad noone was hurt!

 

I would have stayed where i was until morning. Live and learn. Your guardian was with you and the other folks that night.

 

LMAO!! That was great!!

Qiterplop, is it "careless driving" or "reckless driving"? My son got a ticket for reckless driving last year (spinning brodies in the snow ), thought it was a simple traffic violation with fine, points and possible insurance premium increase. Turns out reckless driving is a misdemeanor and carries (at least in Alaska) a possible 30 day jail sentence, up to $1000 in fines, suspension of drivers license for up to 30 days, 12 points on your license and requires you to carry and SR22 for 1 year plus the misdemeanor on your record . Needless to say when we found that out we decided to get a lawyer and fight it. Didn't even make it to court the DA dropped the charges for 60 hours of community service.

I'm glad no one was seriously injured in your accident and, not to be a "mom" or anything but I hope you learned a valuable lesson with this one. Everyone makes mistakes and those of us that are lucky enough to be given a second chance should recognize it and remember for future reference. Good luck.

 

Prosecutors have one thing on their collective minds conviction rates and this does not matter what stae you are in. If the case looks at all shaky they will normally try to plea out. If the charge is a minor misdemeanor (less than 6 months in jail) they will normally allow the suspect to plead guilty to a civil infraction. DUI's plead down to reckless or carless. Reckless plead down to careless and so on. If the suspects plead guilty to a civil charge instead of a criminal charge it is still considered a win for the prosecutor.