First thing first, the only way to drive your car safely is when your alcohol level is zero. In most states though, as long as your alcohol level is below 0.08 then you are on the safe zone – no one can charge you with DUI. However, if you encounter an accident you will still be facing serious consequences from your insurer, even if no one is hurt or property damaged during the mishap.
Whether the law enforcement is interested in your case or not, then that would be a different story.
One unique Florida Case
John, a young driver, was driving along a not-so busy highway when he suddenly lost control of his car, ran off the road, and suffered total wreck. The good news is that John is safe and emerged with minor scratches only. Other than his car, no other person or property was involved – lucky for him.
Both EMT’s and law enforcement arrived on the scene, and as a standard procedure, John was asked if he took alcohol prior to driving. Before he was taken to the hospital, John admitted to the rescue team that he had a couple of drinks. John was taken to the hospital and while on their way, the EMT’s took a blood sample from him. Soon after, he realized that the police officer didn’t take any breathing tests from him. John is now interested whether it will help his case or not.
John is concerned whether his insurance policy will increase and if it does, how much would that be. He is also interested to know if his insurer will honor any future claims for the car repair and medical expenses.
The First Mistake
Well, John’s first mistake is that he admitted he had couple of drinks before he took off. In fact, if you are on the same situation, you should not admit anything unless you have a lawyer with you or at the very least received a good advice from a lawyer. Though, there are certain information that you would need to tell them such as your name, address, contact info and your insurance details, other than that, you are not obligated.
If the police had administered alcohol test to John then that would have been a different story, but what had happened was actually the opposite. Since no tests were conducted, the accident will just be considered as a regular mishap – nothing fancy.
However, John was still concerned about the blood sample that the EMT’s took on their way to hospital. Also, he’s asking if the hospital has the legal right to send the results of the test to the police. Well, fortunately, hospitals are not allowed to do that under the HIPA (Health Information Protection Act). Judging from the whole scene, law enforcement tends to consider this case “low priority” since no one or nobody’s property was damaged.
So, why shouldn’t you say anything in the first place?
Insurance laws differ from state to state and for a few of them, simply admitting that you had couple of drinks before driving is already a sufficient reason to ground any future claims. Now, even if John’s ability to drive is not severely impaired because he just had a couple of drinks, his insurance policy would still rise because he did have alcohol in his system while driving.
