Different Legal Provisions For Different Suspects Under DWI Houston Laws

Apr 28
08:20

2016

Gloria Lipp

Gloria Lipp

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The penal provisions for committing a DWI Houston offense is dependent on the type of suspect being arrested.

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Due to the increasing cases of road accidents related to a DWI Houston offense the law enforcement officials have made it the top priority to make laws stricter to restrict the occurrence of such criminal activities. For this reason the enforcement measures have been enhanced in an attempt to force people to abide by the laid down rules and regulations and to impose stricter penalties for those who fail to do so. Their effort to reduce the occurrence of DWI offense has led to the increase in the number of innocent citizens to pay heavily for the accidents they did not commit. In most of the cases when a law enforcing officers stops a car suspecting the driver to be in an intoxicated state while driving,Different Legal Provisions For Different Suspects Under DWI Houston Laws Articles he makes the arrest to be on a safer side without making proper scrutiny of the circumstances. The consequences that follow after the arrest can take a heavy toll on the suspect and leads to unjust actions if the person so arrested is innocent. For this reason it is necessary to hire the services of a legal professional to get freed from criminal charges that have actually not been committed.

DWI Laws For Teenagers
Statistics show that around 3000 teenagers lose their lives every year in accidents committed while driving in an intoxicated state and the number of such accidents is higher for drivers aged 16 to 20 years than for adults aged 21 years and above. The reason for such occurrence is that teenagers are inexperienced with alcohol they tend to exercise less caution than adults leading to such mishap. This led to the enactment of Zero Tolerance Laws for teenagers during the early 1980s as a safety measure to reduce the accidents occurring from teenage drunk driving. Gradually all states have implemented this policy in their legal provision in response to the federal financial incentives. The policy states that if a teenager has been suspected for a DWI offense and even if a negligible amount of alcohol has been found in his system he should be immediately arrested and legal proceedings initiated against him (most states set the BAC permissible limit to 0.02 percent). Another consideration in the policy is that if a minor has been arrested for such an offense his license should be immediately revoked or suspended by the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) or the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The laws are stricter for first time minor offenders than first time adult offenders. If a minor has been arrested for a DWI offense with BAC level of 0.05 to 0.07 percent or above he can be convicted for both underage DWI and adult DWI.

DWI Laws For Commercial Drivers
For commercial drivers the laws relating to a DWI Houston offense is completely different. Individuals driving commercial vehicles pose a great threat to mankind as such heavy vehicles are designed to serve special purposes and any accident committed by such vehicle can take a heavy toll of the lives of many. Moreover, commercial drivers are often required to transport hazardous or highly inflammable materials and for such reason they need to be extra cautious.  As per the regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a person holding a commercial driving license (CDL) has a permissible BAC limit of 0.04 percent while behind the wheels of a commercial vehicle, significantly lower than the permissible limit for non-commercial drivers. An individual who holds a CDL and has been convicted under the DWI laws is prohibited from operating any commercial vehicle for a period of 1 year and if the driver was in charge of transporting hazardous substances he can be disqualified for a period up to 3 years. Certain other circumstances when the prohibition will be applicable are refusing to undertake any tests related to such offense or escaping the scene of the accident. In addition, they might be charged for hefty fines and sentenced to jail terms depending on the intensity of the offense.