DUI Charges Can Devastate Careers

When you are concerned about driver safety, you really can’t overstate the consequences of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The precise numbers vary from state to state and year to year, but some 35-40% of fatal car crashes are alcohol related, resulting in anywhere from about 14,000 to over 20,000 lives lost. Please allow that to sink in…to put it in perspective, this is about four times the total of U.S. casualties during the Iraq War.

The saddest part is that all of these deaths could have been prevented if the drivers involved had simply chosen not to drink alcohol before getting behind the wheel. It is a “free country,” as it were, and people do choose to engage in risky behavior, like extreme sports, but drinking and the driving puts others at risk. None of us has the right to imperil those with whom we are sharing the road.

Of course, too many people take the attitude that they are capable of driving safely after drinking, and a whole lot of them wind up getting arrested. There were nearly 62,000 DUI arrests in Florida alone in 2008, and we would like to highlight how devastating a DUI charge can be to people from a career perspective.

Earlier this summer Damon Evans, who was athletic director at the University of Georgia at the time, was arrested for DUI in Atlanta. Evans was 34-years-old at the time of the incident, and he had just gotten a raise that was to kick in virtually simultaneous to his arrest, bringing his salary up to $550,000 per year. Evans resigned under apparent pressure less than a week after his arrest.

Before each University of Georgia home game, a tape recorded message from Evans was played to the throng imploring fans to avoid the pitfalls of driving after drinking.

So here is a 34-year-old married father of two children who risked, and lost, a $550,000 per year job by getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after he had been drinking. With all due respect to Mr. Evans, couldn’t a man earning that type of salary afford a taxicab?

This is an extreme example, but no matter what you do for a living, you are risking not only your life, but your livelihood when you drive under the influence. In the state of Florida, there is a mandatory license revocation of 180 days for a first DUI offense. People who are found to be driving a commercial vehicle with a blood alcohol level of just .04 or above lose their commercial drivers license for a year. How many people who drive for a living can absorb a year away from the job, and is there any guarantee that their job will still be there when that year is over?

The message here is even if you are not driving that far, and even if you are reasonably certain that you are not so intoxicated as to cause a fatal accident, consider the consequences short of life and death. Is it really worth it? How many people have saved $20 on a taxi by driving under the influence and lost their careers as a result?

If you have been involved in an injury accident, please contact us at 727-848-8892 to schedule a free consultation.