You’ve been arrested on allegations of driving under the influence. You know that you may have to pay serious fines, spend time behind bars and much more. You may even be worried about your future or your career opportunities.
One thing that you’re wondering is why the police pulled you over to begin with. You know that they need to have a reason to stop your vehicle. They can’t just randomly pull you over and make you take a breath test or do field sobriety tests. If they were to start conducting these random stops, that would be a violation of your rights and may mean that evidence has to be excluded from court.
Signs of a drunk driver
To get around this, police officers will often look for potential signs that someone is driving under the influence. They can’t prove anything from these signs alone, but they do justify the stop. Examples include:
- Driving the wrong direction
- Swerving for no reason
- Driving too slowly
- Not reacting to traffic signals
- Straddling the centerline
- Driving off of the road
- Braking erratically
- Tailgating other vehicles
- Not turning the headlights on even when it’s dark outside
These infractions may seem minor on their own. If someone doesn’t have their lights on, the police may simply pull them over and tell them to turn the lights on, assuming that the person has forgotten.
But if the officers then allege that that driver is impaired, it can lead to an arrest with potentially serious charges. That’s when drivers need to understand all of the legal defense options at their disposal.