Here’s a crazy static, in the United States a drunken driver causes someone to die every 52 seconds. That of course is less than 1 person/minute. And all of this is due to alcohol. Every two seconds a Drunken Driver causes someone to be injured. Both of these statistics are credited to Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
In North Carolina, right here in the triad, a Board of Commissioners Chairman and a Lieutenant in the Police Department have both been charged with DWI, or Driving While Impaired. Their DWI charges occurred only two days apart.
With this renewed emphasis, it’s important to look at the statistics. In Guilford County (Greensboro) in 2013, twenty people died and 472 were injured in Drunk Driving Accidents. The sad part is that with just looking at the numbers in Guilford County alone there are more injuries than there are days of the year (over 100 more DWI related injuries in Guilford County). Statistics tell us that three out of every ten people are affected by DWI’s.
With regard to the DWI’s recently in the news. The County Commissioner denies driving despite registering a .19 on the Breathalyzer and crashing his car into bushes and trees. The Commissioner claims he was drug prescribed to his aunt used to treat diarrhea. We’ll see how the diarrhea defense works for him on his DWI…
The lieutenant, who has overseen DWI Checkpoints for her NC Police Department, was stopped at a Guilford County Checkpoint. She registered a .09 on the Breathalyzer. She is currently on leave pending the outcome of her Driving While Impaired charge (DWI).
With this new emphasis on DWI’s in our local area it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Driving While Impaired charges. For the record, North Carolina does not have DUI’s (Driving Under the Influence), because North Carolina law has referred to Impaired Driving as Driving While Impaired, hence DWI.
Contact our Greensboro DWI Attorneys today if you or someone you know has been charged with a Greensboro DWI, Guilford County DWI, or Randolph County DWI.