You were out drinking with friends. You only had a couple of drinks but decided you shouldn’t drive home and risk getting charged with a DUI. A friend said, however, that you should be fine – all you had to do was this one trick.
Many people have friends that think they can avoid DUIs if they act a certain way or do a secret trick that police overlook. All this ends up doing is ensuring people receive DUIs. It may be important to know what commonly believed myths may result in a DUI charge.
Here’s what you should know:
4 common DUI misconceptions
Myths are spread all the time, that’s often what makes them so easy to believe. Yet, when put to the test, common misconceptions rarely hold up. The following are commonly held myths used to avoid DUI charges:
- Coffee and cold water: The only thinking coffee and a splash of cold water can do is raise your senses, however, while it may seem like it negates any alcoholic effects, it’s only a temporary appearance and won’t help with a breath test. The effects of coffee, cold water and alcohol may even make certain actions like driving perform worse. There will still be alcohol in your body and causing you to fail a breath test.
- Penny in your mouth: This is a very old trick thought to help people pass breath tests. In theory, the penny would affect the reading of a breath test. This myth is far from true and may only cause you to have a bad taste in your mouth.
- Drive slow: You may be able to avoid the suspicion of the police by driving slow, however, you can still receive a DUI charge by other methods. First, driving slow doesn’t mean you’re following the law and an illegal turn could cause suspicion of drunk driving. Or, if you’re the victim of an accident, police may find you were drunk driving, despite your best efforts.
- Refuse a breath test: It’s commonly thought that people can refuse breath tests, however, this may be confused with field sobriety tests. People can refuse field sobriety tests without penalty, but the refusal of a breath test may only lead to severe criminal charges.
While your friend may have good intentions for you to get home, they may be unsuspectingly setting you up for a DUI. When dealing with a DUI charge, you may need to know your legal rights.