What To Do If Your Mardi Gras Celebration Ends In A DUI

Looking for any good excuse to celebrate, people around New Haven will be kicking off some Mardi Gras celebrations on Friday night and through the weekend so it is going to be a festive weekend around the city. As with most Mardi Gras celebrations the alcohol will likely be flowing quite wildly which could lead to some precarious situations for revelers around the city. If you’re one of them and you end up pulled over and in need of a New Haven DUI defense attorney, you should know a few things.

First and foremost it cannot be stressed enough that you should never drink and drive. Even having one drink to toast to Mardi Gras could put you in a bad situation and leave you legally under the influence and subject to getting pulled over. Drinking before you get behind the wheel not only puts you at legal risk, but it puts your safety at risk as well. If you are intoxicated while you are driving you are significantly more likely to get into a fatal accident then if you are sober while driving.

If you’re thinking about getting drunk and getting behind the wheel, DON’T. You should instead, plan your celebration wisely and make sure you have identified a designated driver in your party who will remain sober for the evening and can drive all of you home. If no one in your party is willing to be the designated driver you should make a plan to all pitch in on a ride share service like Uber so you can get to and from your destination safely and without getting into an accident. With the amount of options available to you today, there is no excuse for getting behind the wheel of your vehicle drunk.

With that being said, if you do not follow the above advice and you do drink before you get behind the wheel, you may get pulled over. A DUI is an extremely serious offense and can carry quite stiff penalties here in Connecticut. If this happens to you, you should take the following actions;

1.) Remain silent. You have the right to not say anything about your physical or emotional state. Do not admit to having been drinking even if you are asked directly. Remember, anything you say from the time you are pulled over can be used against you in court so you need to make sure that you do not incriminate yourself.

2.) Provide your license and registration when asked and be polite when interacting with the law enforcement officer. You should cooperate when asked to see identification but you should not go further than that to try to explain yourself or anything like that. You are not required to answer any questions that are asked of you, so you should not. You can politely decline to answer and continue to do that with all further questions.

3.) Refuse a field sobriety test. You are not required in Connecticut to submit to a field sobriety test so you absolutely should not take one. You have the right to refuse it and you should exercise that right. This may trigger your arrest, but if you take the test and you have been drinking you may get arrested as well and then the prosecutor has clear evidence that you had been drinking.

4.) Do not resist arrest. You may be arrested depending on the circumstances and you should not resist. However, you should request a lawyer immediately and you are entitled to one so you should say nothing more until your lawyer is present.

With the technology and the knowledge we have available to us in this day and age there is really no reason you would need to drive while under the influence of alcohol, but if you do there are some things you can do to protect yourself. Being pulled over and subsequently arrested for DUI can be a life altering experience and can quite literally change the course of your life so you need to be protected. It is important that you have an experienced New Haven DUI defense attorney who can help guide you through the process of protecting your long-term interests.