Drunk Driving Records
Do DUI Penalties Deter Drunk Driving? Author: Dirk Gibson Driving under the influence of alcohol is an undeniable problem across the world. Many preventive measures are taken to discourage the act, but massive penalties are used by every state as a deterrent. The question is do they work? ...
Do DUI Penalties Deter Drunk Driving?
Author: Dirk Gibson
Driving under the influence of alcohol is an undeniable problem across the world. Many preventive measures are taken to discourage the act, but massive penalties are used by every state as a deterrent. The question is do they work?
There are two forms of drunk driving from a legal perspective, but really just one form if you think the process through. The two types are DUI and DWI. DUI refers to driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or higher. This is known as driving drunk per se. A DWI, in contrast, does not require the .08 percent figure. You can be driving with blood alcohol content of .05, but still be charged for driving while impaired if the officer in question believes your driving was impacted. In truth, but really boil down to whether your ability to control a car and make decisions is impacted.
A host of preventative efforts are made to deter drunk driving. They range from public information commercials, the broadcasting of horror stories from crashes and the very public display of police check points. Logically, all make sense as deterrents, but there is one problem. By definition, a person that has been tossing down adult beverages all night is not making logical decisions. State governments use the concept of fear to address this issue.
Fear is a great motivator. It is one of our base emotional states. State governments know this and they tie it into drunk driving deterrents by running up the penalties. If you are convicted for a DUI, you face a host of nightmarish penalties. First, you are going to pay big dollars for an attorney, then you are going to pay fines and perhaps the cost of counseling. Depending on the state, you may well end up sitting in jail for a month to a year. That means losing your job and probably going bankrupt since you will not be able to pay bills. I'm not even going to mention what car insurance is going to end up costing you!
So, do these penalties actually work? All indications are they do. Over 26,000 people died in 1982 due to alcohol-related accidents. This accounted for roughly 60 percent of all deaths in traffic accidents. 25 years later, aonlya a bit over 15,000 people were killed in alcohol-related deaths, roughly 37 percent of all traffic accident deaths. The 15,000 figure is all the more encouraging when you figure in the fact the population grew dramatically during this period.
Drunk driving will never be eliminated unless we revisit the idea of Prohibition. Nobody wants to do that, so severe penalties will have to be the major deterrent.
Is there a website where I can find criminal records for free without paying a fee? Drunk Driving records?
That kind of information is usually free and available to the public, so you shouldn’t have to pay. And just as a warning, those fee sites are not usually very thorough. The problem is that if you do not know which court that your “friend” was charged in, finding the information could be difficult. The best way to find out the info that you are looking for is to check the dockets on the Common Pleas website for the county that he/she lives in AND the municipal dockets for the area that he/she lives in. For example, in Cuyahoga County, check: http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/tos.aspx by typing the last name in. Also check the municipal courts in Cuyahoga County – they usually handle traffic cases.
The Cleveland Law Library has a great information site with a list of all the county and municipal courts with their links, if available.
http://www.clelaw.lib.oh.us/Public/MISC/MUNI_CT.HTML
Finally, you can call the Ohio BMV for the current status of a license, but you cannot access someone else’s driving record.
good luck.
I’M LOOKING FOR RECORDS OF A DRUNK DRIVING ACCIDENT THAT OCCURED ON MAY 5,1996 ON EAST 5TH ST IN CARSON CITY?
THE ACCIDENT OCCURED BETWEEN 6:10 AND 6:18am.
There are NO reliable sights on the Internet to access anyone’s accurate criminal record. Any that claim they do are scams and are just sucking cash out of people to provide them links to public records.
OK, here is what you need:
Call your state’s State Attorney Generals Office. They can tell you the process in your state as to how to obtain an official Criminal History Report. This is the complete and official FBI’s NCIC (National Crime Information Center) that lists a persons every single adult arrest and charge disposition everywhere in the United States. These reports are not free, but it is only a very small administrative charge given to the Law Enforcement agency who runs and prints it for you.
Next, you could pay to get at least one credit bureau report from one of the big three credit bureaus. This can be use to see the persons financial history, which can tell you a lot about them. You can see prior addresses and what they owe and to whom and where.
With the above two documents, you can do your own search of public government records in the towns and states where they live. You can check county tax records, Clerk of Court records and local police / sheriff records just to name a few.
Or, you can contact a local Private Investigator and pay them to obtain all of this information for you. You will pay much more as they will add fee’s on to do the leg work for you.
So, do not believe any site on the net. They are just scams. Not a single one of them is tied into any official government data base as only authorized government agencies have access to this information.
And no site out there can give instant access to all of this info. It will talk some of your own detective work to do it, or, as I said…. hire a P.I. Agency to assist you.
Read this question a person asked and you will see the poor results he had after paying for records searches:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgwjVPlmBvbGVF7oxDo7wwDty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070923045852AAFEfaE&show=7#profile-info-F7bdXON9aa
How can you access records for drunk driving, domestic violence, ect in Ohio. ?
I need to access some records on a person I know with a long list of arrests and DUI’s. I only ever get the sites that want to charge you to look at them. I’m pretty sure there is a free way to do it though the state or county.
Thanks
Would George W Bush have a problem getting employment as a store greeter due to his drunk driving record?
or was the Bush family successful in expunging the conviction from his record?
Is it that important that you know the answer to GWB’s DUI. It happened many years ago, before DUI was a felony. School bus driver might be a job he would not qualify for, but greeter, not a problem.
This man would make a ton of money on the talk circuit. People would love to hear the conservative opinion on Barry’s rabid spending frenzy. I believe even Limbaugh would pause long enough to get GWB’s views.
You are a busybody.
How can I find out about jail inmates in Sanilac County? Isn’t this public records? 3rd offense drunk driving
Friend went to court on Monday, haven’t heard anything. I believe in jail for 6 months. Can I find out through internet for county if she is.
Any criminal offense falls under public records, so you should be able to find out by calling your sheriff’s department (or whichever law enforcement agency runs the jail in your area) and asking.