Driving while intoxicated is a serious traffic crime. In New York, 20% of road accident is as a result of drunken driving. The untold fact is, those accidents lead to deaths, permanent injuries and the surviving families devastated from the fact that their loved one was driving while intoxicated. Consult our New York Intoxication Attorney to be aware of possible charge you may receive and prepare an appropriate criminal defense
Although not all intoxicated drivers cause an accident, it increases the danger to oneself and other people who are using the same road.
Why is alcohol so bad?
Alcohol impairs your judgment of distance and speed and makes you feel confident that you can avoid an accident if it comes. Moreover, it reduces your ability to recover from glares of a car coming from the opposite direction and that's when a driver loses control and causes an accident.
Alcohol isn't the only substance that intoxicates. Instead, even prescribed medicine can intoxicate and cause also impair your judgment. It is therefore important to ask your doctor whether it’s safe to drive if you’re taking a specific medication.
Since intoxication is one of the leading causes of accidents, law enforcement officers have to stop you if they suspect you're driving under the influence of alcohol in the realization of reducing accidents on the road. Consequently, the officer has several options:
- bring you in until you sober up
- take you to your house
- Or drive you to a hospital for recovery
But, can police question you after they bring you in while intoxicated?
The question to this question depends on the state you reside in. While some states have police code of conduct that limits them from interviewing an intoxicated person, the police can still ask you questions. However, if the police choose to implement protective custody, they can’t question you or use the information as evidence against you. Ideally, protective custody is meant to achieve two things:
- allow the person to undergo treatment instead of acquiring a criminal record
- and, prevent the person from being charged
Countries that use protective custody also limit law enforcers to the type of questions they can ask. Your c
ountry can bar the police from using the information they collect during protective custody to build and file a criminal charge against you.
Additionally, a state may require the police to interrogate an individual to ensure the person receives the right treatment. Nonetheless, the decision on whether the information gathered during an interview is reliable or as necessary depending on the circumstances surrounding your case.
Can you ask for the evidence gathered during the interview to be excluded?
Suppose you’re intoxicated from prescribed drugs. You can argue that it is involuntary intoxication. Moreover, if your judgment on the road is unreliable, so does your information. You can, therefore, argue that the evidence collected during that period should be overthrown.
Find Legal Representation
Intoxication laws are complex to understand. Therefore, if you ever find yourself in the middle of charges over intoxication, you have to talk to an attorney. Furthermore, the lawyer should be experienced and have experience practicing law in your local area.