Earlier this month, a mother from Santa Barbara, California pleaded guilty to a DUI after she crashed her car into a lamppost because of her extreme intoxication. The crash occurred in May of 2013, but the woman was recently sentenced for her crime. The crash severely injured her three-year-old child, who was in the car at the time of the accident. The mother no longer has custody of her son because of her reckless driving. He suffered a broken neck in the wreck.
Also this month, a Randolph County man was arrested for driving under the influence with two children in his car. The West Virginia state police charged the 33-year-old man with a DUI with child endangerment after he was pulled over. The children in the car were both two-years-old. Thankfully, these children were not injured, but they were put in grave danger due to the driver's heavily intoxicated state.
Child endangerment is a serious crime that is often charged in addition to DUI in many DUI arrest cases. The police can charge a driver with child endangerment if they were driving drunk with young children in the car. While state laws on child endangerment, most courts will add sentence enhancements for drivers that had a child in the vehicle when they were arrested. If the child was injured in a DUI crash, the penalties may be even higher.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, in 2012, 20 percent of children under the age of 14 and younger who were killed in motor-vehicle crashes were killed in an alcohol-related crash. 54% of those children were the passengers in vehicles with a driver that had a BAC level of .08% or higher.
These children are not only at risk because of unsafe driving, but because they are often riding in the car without restraint. Many times intoxicated drivers fail to buckle their children into their seats, leaving them to suffer harsher injuries or sudden death if there is a collision. Drinking drivers allegedly only restrain their child in the car about 18% of the time.
Child endangerment is improper care of a child, which is why 46 state and the District of Columbia all have laws enhancing penalties for those who drive drunk with a passenger in the vehicle that is under the age of 14. The laws vary widely in the severity and definition of a child passenger. In New York, it is a felony to drive drunk with a child passenger under the age of 16, and in Wisconsin the same offense is considered a misdemeanor.
If you have been accused of child endangerment, you are at-risk to losing custody of your child and may have to serve severe penalties. A caring DUI lawyer near you can help you to make sense of your charges and work through them in a methodic and rational way. The penalties issued for child endangerment in addition to your DUI will probably depend on your prior record of a DUI.
If you have an extensive record, you run the risk of being charged with a felony. Felonies involve longer prison terms, high fines, and marks on your permanent criminal record. You may also lose freedoms such as carrying a passport, voting, and purchasing a firearm because of your convicted felon status. If you want assistance defending yourself from a child endangerment charge, use our directory to find a reliable local DUI attorney near you. A skilled lawyer may be able to come alongside you and advocate for lesser penalties on your behalf. Get started with a search on our directory today to learn more!