It’s no secret that drunk driving is illegal, but it still happens with relative frequency. Why is this?
One potential reason is that people do not even realize they’re too drunk to drive. People tend to compare themselves to those around them. Therefore, they could be intoxicated and think they’re fairly sober just because others are more intoxicated than they are. On top of that, alcohol can inhibit your ability to judge just how drunk you are. In other words, someone who gets in the car after drinking may think it’s safe, despite being intoxicated.
Another reason is that people sometimes believe they are proficient drunk drivers and may even brag about how good they are. This may come from experience. Their confidence in their own abilities may lead them to drive drunk when an officer would still have grounds to make an arrest after a traffic stop.
On top of that, you also have issues of convenience. Someone may not have another ride home — or at least a convenient one. They may not want to pay for a cab. They may have driven to the location — a bar, a restaurant or a friend’s house — while they were sober, so they don’t want to leave the car and come back the next day to get it. They’ll often risk driving under the influence because it just feels at the moment like it will make their life easier.
For all of these reasons and many more, people get arrested for driving under the influence, and they need to know exactly what legal rights they have.