Driving under the influence is not only dangerous for your life, but also for your freedom. After a tough week of work, we only wish to hang out with friends in the weekend, have some drinks and forget about the rest. Sometimes we are tourists in foreign cities and we drink too much due to holiday happiness.
Sometimes, although we feel a bit dizzy, we drive our car anyway and do not think about the possibility that we overstepped alcohol limits allowed by laws and we may incur the crime of driving under the influence of alcohol. There we go, first checkpoint and end of the game.
Watch out! Driving under the influence of alcohol is a crime, pursuant to art. 186 of Italian Traffic code. More in details, in Italy we have three grades of driving under the influence crime, based on seriousness.
First grade of driving under the influence crime is punished only with a fine. It occurs when the level of alcohol is between 0.5 and 0.8 g/l. The fine amount is between 531.00 and 2,125.00 Euro and your driving license may be suspended from three to six months.
Second grade of driving under the influence crime. It occurs when the driver reaches an alcohol level higher than 0.8 and lower than 1.5 g/l. In such a case, a criminal procedure will be filed and a fine is applied, between 800.00 and 3,200.00 Euro. Also, the drunk person is imprisoned for a period which is minimum three months up to six months. Finally, driving license will be suspended from six months to one year.
Third grade of driving under the influence crime is punished when the alcohol levels are higher than 1.5 g/l. In this case is applied a fine between 1,500.00 and 6,000.00 and the person is convicted to imprisonment from six months to one year. Driving license is suspended from one to two years and the vehicle is seized, if it is property of the convicted person. While, if it is property of a third person, the vehicle cannot be seized and driving license suspension is doubled.
Driving under the influence of alcohol in Italy between 10 pm and 7am is an aggravating circumstance. In this case the fine is increased, between 1/3 and 1/2.
To recap, up to 0,49 g/l your alcohol limit is acceptable and you are still safe. If you are drunk and feel dizzy, leave someone else to drive: drunk people are not criminal if they are passengers!
Refusing to submit to alcohol test entails directly the application of DUI crime, third grade. You should submit to the test, when asked. You may be 0.01 under the limit!
If you are fined or arrested for drunk driving, Damiani & Damiani International Law Firm & Services offers prompt defence and assistance, at least to obtain extenuating circumstances or ask a substitutive punishment. We also assist for plea bargain. Finally, even though it is difficult we sometimes managed to prove ineffectiveness of alcohol tests.
