Prom season can lead to drunk driving risk, arrests in Tennessee
Statistics suggest that the majority of teenagers do not drink, about 70 percent. Though that is a significant amount of non-drinking kids, the 30 percent who apparently do consume alcohol leaves room for concern. Parents need to talk to their kids consistently about drinking and driving from both the perspectives of safety and the law.
Prom-aged teens are new drivers, a demographic that notoriously causes and is injured in traffic accidents. About 20 percent of traffic fatalities involving teens are alcohol-related, according to research. A natural part of being a teenager is making mistakes. Hopefully, a drunk driving accident won’t wind up on a kid’s list of mistakes.
Hopefully, an underage DUI charge won’t result from a teen’s mistake. Tennessee has a no-tolerance approach to underage drinking. Teens are held to a stricter standard in regards to DUI charges, with 0.02 BAC being enough to charge them with underage DUI.
Source: The Tennessean, “Temptation High For Drunk Driving in Prom, Grad Season,” Jessica Bliss, April 4, 2013
- Our Chattanooga underage DWI defense lawyers help teens avoid the serious impact that a conviction can have on their futures.