News for drivers in Texas: Beginning September 1, 2009, Texas law enforcement officers will be permitted to order blood draws from some DWI suspects without obtaining a warrant.Variations of this somewhat controversial law are already in effect in many other parts of the country where warrantless blood draws for DUI suspects are common, most notably in Florida.
Texas and Florida suffer large casualties due to alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes every year, despite the implementation of educational and enforcement programs to combat the issue. In Texas, the use of alcohol or drugs while driving causes 28% of fatal crashes and is the second most common contributing factor for crashes, according to the state's driver handbook. In 2007 in Florida, there were 22,823 drinking and driving and 1,252 drugging and driving motor vehicle crashes, resulting in a total of 1,446 deaths and 17,160 injuries, according to Florida Traffic Crash Statistics. Thirty-nine percent of traffic fatalities were alcohol-related.
Nationwide, statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate that in 2007, drivers who had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher who were involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes were eight times more likely to have a previous conviction for driving while impaired than drivers who had no alcohol in their systems. The most frequently-recorded BAC level for drivers who had been drinking and were involved in fatal crashes was .16.
Current Florida DUI law is much more broad than the new Texas law; in Florida, police officers have the authority to order blood draws on any DUI suspect. Under the terms of the Texas law, police are only allowed to do so in particular circumstances, such as when the suspect is a repeat offender, a passenger in the vehicle is killed, or a child under the age of 15 is a passenger in the vehicle.
According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Florida DUI law also allows police to pursue the withdrawal of a blood sample "by authorized medical personnel with the use of reasonable force by the arresting officer" if the DUI involves serious injury or a fatality. Also, an individual who is unconscious or otherwise unable to refuse the test is presumed to have given consent to the test under the state's Implied Consent law.
Nationwide statistics show that much improvement is still needed in states' efforts to lower the number of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. In the U.S., a fatality caused by driving under the influence of alcohol occurs once every 40 minutes, according to NHTSA.
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