Criminal Law News

Illinois police, who arrived at the scene of a DUI accident involving an underage driver, were not expecting the teen’s explanation for the accident.  By the time police arrived, the eighteen-year-old driver had driven her car into a ditch.  Police found that she was extremely intoxicated, and also very angry.  The reason for her intoxicated driving, she told police officers, was that her boyfriend had failed to take her to see the latest installment in the Twilight movie series.  That’s what it says on the sheriff’s report about the accident.

However, law-enforcement officers were not as distressed with the boyfriend’s failures as the teen was.  She was immediately slapped with charges of driving under the influence and unlawful consumption of alcohol by a minor.

It’ll take more than such excuses to help an underage driver in California caught driving under the influence of alcohol.  California has some of the toughest laws against underage drinking in the country.  While .08% is the BAC level legally allowed for the adult motorist population, underage drinkers are prevented from driving with any amount of alcohol in their system.  The bar is set much higher for underage drinkers, and the consequences for persons below the age of 18 who are found driving under the influence of alcohol, can be severe.

That means that an underage driver in Los Angeles, driving with a BAC level of even 01%, can require the services of a Los Angeles DUI attorney.  Underage drivers who are caught driving with a BAC level of .05% or greater can be charged with not only underage DUI, but also regular DUI.  These persons can also be arrested for DUI.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take that much alcohol to result in a .01% BAC concentration level, a fact that many teenage drinkers tend to forget.