Recent survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that driving while using a cellphone has increased over the past year despite the fact that this has been banned by a large number of states. How widespread is this problem? According to reports about distracted driving, 18% of people surveyed by NHTSA admitted to having sent text messages or emails while driving and half of 21 to 24 admitted to driving while texting. This is a major problem.
Distracted driving is just as dangerous as DUI, but Pennsylvania lawmakers are turn a blind eye to it.
As everyone can see, this behavior is growing and the results are often devastating. According to NHTSA’s statistics, 9.4% of traffic fatalities were distracted driving related. According to many other studies, driving while texting is as dangerous or even more dangerous than DUI. The problem is, there is a huge hypocrisy in the way law makers treat both of these crimes.
Both DUI and distracted driving are crimes that are fatally dangerous. Both have claimed lives of innocent people with bright futures in front of them. However, DUI is treated as a serious criminal offense that results in jail time, license suspension, heavy fines and a permanent criminal offense while distracted driving is “penalized” with a slap-on-the-wrist $50 ticket or some such minor punishment.
The message I get from this hypocrisy is that lawmakers want to save the lives of those killed by DUI but don’t care about those killed by distracted driving. That’s the wrong message to send. How am I wrong?
It’s really sad to see our legal values deteriorate before our very eyes. One of the underlying themes in criminal justice is the presumption of innocence UNLESS proven guilty. However, this currently does not apply to DUI!
That is because DUI is the most politically charged crime in the United States today and through the media, powerful DUI lobbies like MADD have lead a calculated disinformation campaign. Their propaganda is aimed at brainwashing the public to the point that anyone accused of a DUI is assumed to be guilty. On top of that, the ways the laws are structured cops don’t need any solid evidence to arrest and charge you with a DUI. It’s a perfect example of “You’re Guilty Because I Said So”.
Take this recent example:
GROVE CITY, Pa. — A citizen in a western Pennsylvania school district is threatening to sue to prevent a man from taking the superintendent’s job because he’s awaiting trial on charges he drove drunk while his blood-alcohol content was nearly four times the state’s limit.
The point here is the man is awaiting trial on Pennsylvania DUI charges- nothing has been proven yet. This citizen who is suing is making a broad assumption based on the DUI accusation without giving the man accused a chance to defend himself in court. Unfortunately, this type of rationale is prevalent amongst folks and this mindset spills over to jury members who walk into the courtroom assuming guilt in DUI cases. Of course, the media plays a big role in cultivating this mindset through sensationalist articles which do not mention all of the facts. For example, here in Pennsylvania local newspapers print the names of all the people arrested for DUI, publicly humiliating them, but never print a retraction or even a mention of the many people who go on to be acquitted of these charges. Once again it’s the presumption of guilt in DUI cases.
This is one of my main motivations behind this blog, to educate all people on the dangers of assuming guilt.
DUI defense lawyers are encouraged to post any interesting stories about the dangers of assuming guilt in the comments below.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania along with state and local police are all trying to make our roadways safer…or so they claim. Once again the evident hypocrisy is crystal clear when it comes to Pennsylvania DUI. As a Pennsylvania DUI Lawyer, it is my job to show a balanced picture of what is really happening.
Decision on DUI frustrates officials
A local case of a man found asleep in his car might have to be dropped.
Recently, in Hanover Township resident, [name omitted] was considerably drunk and instead of making the dangerously wrong the decision of driving, he laid back in his parked car and intended to sleep it off. He was arrested and charged with DUI. The judge in the case ruled that the evidence the police collected was not admissible.
I think most of us would agree that this driver made the correct decision, unfortunately the prosecutor doesn’t agree with us:
But [the Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney] said the responsibility of police is to ensure the safety of the public. The law puts police in a difficult position because, without evidence the operator drove the car, the officer can’t arrest the person on suspicion of DUI.
“At best the officer can prevent the person from driving, but does he have the time to stand by the car to make sure they do not drive away?” the DA said.
Pennsylvania DUI Lawyer comments on DUI while Sleeping
So the prosecutor is frustrated because he couldn’t get someone convicted of a crime they hadn’t committed? The defendant in this case was not driving or in actual physical control, so how can he be drunk driving?!?!? Isn’t this argument recommending preemptive prosecution? Just because he had the opportunity to doesn’t mean he committed a crime. It reminds me of the shortest cross examination I ever had in a DUI case that ultimately resulted in a Not Guilty. In this type of case, I only asked one question. My one question to the officer in front of the Jury was simply: “Officer, what does the D in DUI stand for?” He replied “Driving”. I asked no other questions as my point was made.
Take this example. You walk in to a convenience store and grab a gallon of milk. When you get to the counter you notice that there is no cashier around. You wait a couple minutes and when no one arrives you leave the milk there and exit the store. The cops arrest you because you were in the store alone and had the opportunity to rob the cash register.
It sounds silly. It’s unconstitutional. It’s against our rights. It would never happen.
Unfortunately, it does with DUI. There are many states that have enacted laws that allow people to be charged with a full DUI even if they are asleep in a parked car.
One again, the DUI Hypocrisy is evident in our law enforcement. As citizens of Pennsylvania, we should not allow our rights to be compromised like this.
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