| Admissibility of Blood Alcohol Tests in Drunk Driving Cases |
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| All 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes requiring a motorist arrested for drunk driving to submit to a chemical blood test. These statutes are known as "implied consent" laws. Under these laws, a motorist suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol is deemed to have consented to a chemical analysis test designed to measure blood alcohol content level. More... |
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| Elements of Vehicular Homicide |
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| Vehicular homicide statutes vary, but generally vehicular homicide occurs where someone causes the death of a human being, not constituting murder or manslaughter, as a result of operating a motor vehicle. More... |
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| Failure to Yield Traffic Violations |
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| State highway statutes and local ordinances set forth violations for offenses for which violators may be arrested without arrest warrants. One such violation is the failure to yield the right-of-way. Right-of-way merely means a preference to one of two vehicles asserting the right of passage at the same place and at approximately the same time. Generally speaking, the driver of the vehicle on the left must yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right. Moreover, the right-of-way is not absolute as the relative speeds and positions of drivers with respect to the intersection must be considered.
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| Criminal Offense of Improper Lane Usage |
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| A motorist is under a duty to have all of his vehicle on the right side of the road, and while the driver of an approaching car is charged with the duty of exercising proper care to avoid a collision, he has the right to presume that the motorist of the vehicle on the wrong side of the road will move over entirely to his own side. This idea is incorporated into statutes governing improper lane usage. By its terms, if a roadway is divided into two or more marked lanes of traffic, a motorist must stay in his lane of traffic so far as possible or practical and may not move from his lane without first ascertaining that such a movement could be safely done. More... |
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| Consequences for First Time DUI/DWI Offenders |
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| If you have been charged with driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) you may face a multitude of penalties even if it is your first offense. The penalties for these offenses are so varied that it would be impractical to discuss each state's penalties. Many states have adopted sentencing guidelines that provide a sentencing range for each type of offense and provide the aggravating and mitigating factors that can increase or decrease the sentence. More... |
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