Well, here’s the thing. If you get in the front seat of your car and start it while you’re wasted, you can get arrested for 24 hours or longer and issued a DUI. Even if your car doesn’t move.
Now if you do start moving, you can potentially hit and kill pedestrians, other cars, animals, drive through a home and the list goes on. Texting while driving increases the likelihood of an accident by 23%. Think of being wasted as texting while driving on steroids. That 23% number skyrockets up.
Everyone hits the points I made above though when discussing drunk driving. No one ever talks about how much time is wasted or how much money it costs to get a DUI after you get caught. So I will. It’s easy to make things sound theoretical in your head, but when you know about the financial consequences, that may hold more weight. I know it does for someone like me.
So now we know that you can go to jail and kill someone. But what are the after effects if you are caught?
1. Hiring a Lawyer. (Average cost $5,000)
2. Multiple Court Hearings.
3. Community Service for over 100 hours.
4. Alcoholics Anonymous classes. (If you miss a class or can’t afford the fees, you have to do more classes or the judge can send you back to jail)
5. Have a breathalyzer placed in your vehicle. (This has a monthly fee that is nearly as high as $100 and even if you had drinks the night before and you need to get to work in the morning, you won’t be able to start your car since the alcohol is still in your system)
6. Get drug tested regularly. (Bye bye Californian pot dreams or hello extra costs for drug test maskers)
7. Being on probation.
8. Getting tossed back in jail for missing fines or an AA class or community service, while just trying to balance everything out so you can keep a stable job.
I’m sure there are other parts I’m missing here, but if you don’t want to spend a few vacations in jail or have an extra $20,000 laying around to cover all these astronomical costs and the loss of work you will be encountering, then I wouldn’t recommend drinking or driving.
—
Originally posted on Quora.