DUI can be less than legal limit

This Fourth of July weekend, drivers need to be aware of the consequences of drinking and driving, even under the legal limit.

While Arizona's legal alcohol driving limit is .08, most people don't realize that you can still get a DUI if you drive impaired while under that limit, Officer Clint Norred of the Yuma Police Department said.

Norred said "the DUI law states that if (the driver) is impaired to any degree or at a .08" level, they can be charged with a DUI.  

He said because the state Legislature recognizes that alcohol affects people in different ways, officers can arrest people for DUIs under any good suspicion of impairment. Whether those people found under the limit will be charged, however, is determined by factors like the driver's traffic violations, what the officer witnessed while talking to the driver who's been stopped, and a field sobriety test.

Police Sgt. Dan Wilkey said that officers have to have probable cause to arrest someone for driving under the legal limit, and, according to Norred, that probable cause is very important in the officer's decision to charge or not.

"The legal limit is a presumption under the law," Norred said. He added that if someone is found with a blood-alcohol concentration below .08, then there is no presumption, and impairment must be proven.

Similar to other holiday weekends, Norred said that the police will be out in larger forces performing a detail on drunken driving this Fourth of July weekend.

Last year's weekend resulted in 73 stops and nine arrests, where the average blood-alcohol concentration was .105. "(Arresting impaired drivers at a level) below .08 is probably a rare occurrence," Norred said.    If charged with a DUI, defendants face on first offense a $1,470 fine, one day in jail pending a nine-day alcohol screening, a 90-day license suspension, and the placement of an ignition interlock device in their car. The interlock device is a built-in blood alcohol concentration test, which the driver must pass in order to start his/her car.

Norred said the police often receive legal challenges to these punishments due to their severity, whether the person charged was under or over the legal limit.

Norred also said that other charges, specifically extreme DUI, based on blood alcohol concentration, and aggravated DUI, based on driving with a suspended license or with a child in the car, carry different punishments.

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Karina Schroeder can be reached at kschroeder@yumasun.com or 539-6864.