Most likely we didn’t really have to tell you, since many of you already expected this, but police agencies all over the Garden State will be busy this month enforcing anti-drunk driving laws with an eye toward the state’s high school graduates and other celebrants. As New Jersey DWI and drug DUI defense attorneys, my firm has the in-depth skills and decades of collective legal experience to represent individuals accused of drunk driving, driving under the influence of doctor-prescribed medication, and even operating a motor vehicle while impaired by an illicit substance, such as cocaine, meth or marijuana.
That said, it’s also important to point out that, as DWI defense lawyers, we also have experience in the area of underage drunk driving and alcohol possession by a minor. As one might expect, being tagged by the police for DWI as an adult can be serious and expensive business, but being arrested as a teenager for drinking and driving can also have its own drawbacks later on.
We’ve spoken of this on numerous occasions, but the reason we mention it today is that senior prom season is in full swing this month. What with thousands of teens saying goodbye to high school and staring their future in the face, it’s not hard to understand how some of those kids might be inclined to take a drink in advance of reaching full legal age. While understandable to some adults (parents included), the so-called rite of passage represented by drinking alcohol is actually illegal in the Garden State. But as with many laws, there will always be those who decide to flout the law and take their chances.
With kids’ minds more on summertime and vacation, parents of some teens know that the end of the school year presents a new-found freedom for some kids that only invites misbehavior. Sometimes it school doesn’t even have to be over for the hijinks to begin. This is why we begin local and state police agencies gearing up for prom and graduation season with added drunken driving patrols and heightened awareness of the potential dangers and pitfalls of underage drinking and DWI.
For example, the police in South Brunswick are already reminding residents of the dangers of drunk driving by teens as well as adults. According to news articles, April through June can be some of the most dangerous times of the year for young drivers and their passengers. Out in South Brunswick, the first week of May already has seen four car accidents, each reportedly tied to the consumption of alcohol, according to authorities.
In two of those four incidents, police believe the drivers were not even legally old enough to buy alcohol, much less consume it before getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Fortunately for the parents of those involved, there were no serious injuries as a result of these wrecks, but each of the guilty parties will likely fork over thousands of dollars in DWI and related penalties, not to mention likely loss of their driving privileges for a time — so much for new-found freedom this summer.
South Brunswick cracking down on drunk driving during prom, graduation season; MyCentralJersey.com, May 10, 2012