When is comes to driving under the influence of alcohol, making a bad judgment can really cause a person all manner of trouble down the road. We don’t just say this without some knowledge in the area of DWI and DUI law, since penalties for drunken driving can be quite costly. But consider the ramifications for someone who makes his or her living on the road. For professional drivers, a New Jersey drunk driving or drug DUI arrest can potentially spell the end of one’s career. And it doesn’t have to be alcohol; it can be cocaine or as well.
As New Jersey DWI defense lawyers, I and my colleagues know how someone’s fate can turn on a dime when a conviction for driving while intoxicated comes down in a municipal courtroom. For those who make their living driving day-in and day-out, such a conviction could also entail the loss of one’s commercial driver’s license (CDL). For an average person who works in an office, the loss or suspension of a driver’s license can definitely be an inconvenience. But commercial truckers should not take a chance on fate when it comes to receiving a DWI summons.
It wasn’t too long ago that we read of an out-of-state DWI arrest following a truck crash that caused a large disruption on an interstate. The Orange County man who was operating the semi at the time of the crash was eventually charged with driving while impaired by alcohol. Not only did the man face local DWI charges, but Federal regulations have a much stricter set of rules regarding alcohol-related traffic offenses.
According to news reports, 46-year-old Glenn Grise of West Orange, NJ, apparently lost control of his rig during the evening hours of a Friday night and crashed the tracto and trailer on an overpass across I-895. The truck turned over in the left lane of the intersecting roadway reportedly causing two drums of concrete additive to spill more than 500 gallons of the liquid onto the roadway below.
Based on police reports at the time, the truck belonged to a New Jersey cartage company, G. Grise Trucking. But no other information was available from the firm at the time of the news article. What was stated in the article was that police were not certain of the initial cause of the accident, however the driver was eventually arrested on local charges of DWI.
In a case like this one, it’s very possible that the driver could have jeopardized his CDL because of the rather stiff Federal regulations governing drunken driving by professional, federally-licensed commercial drivers.
According to news articles, Grise was charged with DWI as well as failure to obey lane markings and negligent driving. Additional Federal charges will likely be levied against the man if his is convicted of drunk driving by local authorities. Some people who follows news stories like these will possibly remember that Federal regulation covering commercial drivers include a 0.04-percent blood-alcohol concentration as the limit for truckers to be legally drunk per Federal laws. As such, Grise was apparently charged with violating Federal regulations related to drinking prior to operating a commercial vehicle.
Driver of truck that crashed, leaked additive charged with DWI, BaltimoreSun.com, February 16, 2012
I-95 Reopens After Tractor Trailer Crash, Spill; WUSA9.com, February 16, 2012