DUI With Injury in Anaheim
Summary: This page covers Defense against a DUI with injury charge.
According to California Vehicle Code 23153 , you can be charged with DUI with injury if you cause bodily injury to another person as a result of driving under the influence . This law definitely applies in the city of Anaheim – as well as the rest of California – and is taken very seriously by the Orange County District Attorney.
According to VC 23152, driving under the influence includes;
- Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol
- Driving while physically or mentally impaired due to alcohol and
- Having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or more while driving
To be convicted of a DUI with injury, the prosecution must prove:
- That you were driving under the influence
- You were negligent or broke another law including the DUI and
- That your negligence caused someone’s injury
An example of a situation where someone would be charged with driving under the influence with injury would be if someone with a blood alcohol concentration of over 0.08% were to be driving home after consuming alcohol to their home accidentally swerved into the wrong lane and hit the car next to him. Because of the collision, the person in the other car who was not intoxicated suffered a blow to the neck and some brain injuries. The person who was under the influence would be charged with a DUI with injury because while under the influence of alcohol, he was recklessly driving, which caused the injury of someone else.
Defense against a DUI with injury charge
If you are arrested for DUI with injury, you should call a capable attorney as soon as possible to help you navigate the legal hurdles ahead of you. The attorney that you call should have experience with DUI charges and should preferably be familiar with the courts at Anaheim.
Some of the strategies that the attorney will explore are as follows:
- That you were not under the influence at the time of the arrest and/or the BAC was inaccurately reported.
- The arrest, investigation, field sobriety tests, and chemical tests were not lawfully or appropriately conducted
- There are some limits when taking a field sobriety test. Although they are generally effective, there are some exceptions to how effective they are at measuring if someone is under the influence of alcohol or not. The purpose of the field sobriety tests are to test how capable you are of following a series of instructions and your performance of the tasks that you are administered. The test should be conducted in a very standardized manner. If the tests are not given correctly, that could affect the accuracy of the test and how capable it is at testing you. There are also certain outside factors that may negatively affect one’s performance such as the age of the participant or certain medical conditions.
- That the accident was not exactly your fault and probably the weather, road conditions damage to the vehicle or other circumstances were at play.
There are several other strategies that the DUI attorney will also explore and the sooner that you call them, then the sooner that a strong defense can be strategized for you.
