Women Charged With DWI On The Rise
You may have seen the recent tragic news story where a New York woman driving drunk drove down the wrong side of the highway crashing and killing herself, her daughter, three nieces and three men in the SUV she hit. Toxicology results revealed that the woman's blood alcohol level was 0.19%, more than twice the legal limit. Additionally, she smoked marijuana within an hour of the crash. According to a recent study, nationwide, the number of women arrested for driving under the influence or alcohol or drugs was 28.8 percent higher in 2007 than it was in 1998, while the number of men arrested was 7.5 percent lower. The study is based on figures that cover about 56 percent of the country. Granted, this is an incomplete sample, the trend is still disturbing.
As the New York tragedy demonstrates driving while intoxicated with children can have tragic consequences. In Texas Driving While Intoxicated with a Child Passenger is a felony. With the trend in the rise of women driving under the influence and women being the traditional children's caretaker it stands to reason that we will see more arrest for these types of cases and sadly more possible tragedies.