The driver’s reaction is a set of skills that allow you to timely prevent an emergency and apply the brake.

Driving a car requires special attention from drivers. They must respond in time to all kinds of obstacles, be able to predict emergencies. Sometimes there are only a few seconds to apply the brake, and those seconds can cost someone their life.

What determines the reaction rate

Many factors affect response time. It is not only the brand of the car, the weather conditions on the street that matters, but also the individual characteristics of the organism.

What is the average driver’s reaction time and what does it depend on:

• The gender of the person. It is scientifically proven that men react to potential danger faster than women. Their reaction time is on average at 1,8 s. While for ladies, the speed of reaction to danger is 2,8 s.
• Age. Motorists under the age of thirty react faster to impending danger. Young drivers react to a potential accident in 1,54 seconds. The reaction time in the elderly increases to 2,05 s.
• Driving experience. People who have driven a vehicle for more than 5 years can react faster to impending danger than those who have recently driven.

Additional factors:

• time of day at which movement is carrying out;
• weather;
• the speed at which the car is moving;
• the quality of the road surface;
• the level of illumination of the road at night;
• the general well-being of the driver while driving.

Also, the speed of response to probable accidents depends on the physical fitness of the person driving.

What happens when you drink alcohol?

To find out how alcohol affects the driver’s reaction, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of the effect of alcohol on the human body as a whole.

Alcoholic drinks are basing on ethanol. They have a calming and inhibitory effect. Therefore, a drunk driver is a potential killer. Such people can harm not only themselves but also other motorists who drive without breaking the rules.

When drinking alcohol, the speed of reaction to a potential danger decreases, the criticality of assessing a difficult transport situation is distorting. All this leads to road traffic accidents, which can turn into dire consequences.

Also, alcohol itself negatively affects the work of the heart, brain, blood vessels.

Drinking and driving: understanding the risks

It is strictly forbidden to drive while drunk, even if you have drinking very little.

How alcohol affects the driver’s reaction time:

1. Small doses of alcohol also negatively affect the nervous system, as a result – the reaction is inhibiting.
2. Ethanol enters the brain, which leads to a deterioration in the activity of the nervous system. An untrained driver may face attacks of headaches, increased pressure, chest discomfort while driving, which is likely to provoke an accident.

How alcohol influences driver reaction time

When drunk, the ability to quickly respond to danger and make timely decisions in difficult situations on the road is lost.

At the same time, many drivers, having drunk alcohol, overestimate their abilities and believe that they can prevent an accident, almost completely losing their vigilance.

In fact, it turns out that their reaction is slow, although the motorists themselves do not think so at the time of movement.

Experts believe that a drunk person is much more dangerous than an elderly or sick person. After all, older people control their actions, are in a sane state, and do not overestimate their abilities. Rather, on the contrary, they have excessive vigilance.

But alcohol and a quick reaction to a difficult road situation are practically incompatible things.

Often, drunk drivers want to throw out their energy and feel the excitement due to a surge of adrenaline:

• they begin to drive at high-speed
• drunk drivers try to repeat any tricks that they would never do in a sober mind
• they try to overtake passing cars, periodically driving into the oncoming lane.

All this creates potential conditions for road accidents and the death of innocent people.

Picture Credit: Pexels

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“I remember they brought a young man who was accused of carrying a weapon. “He never had a weapon with him, your honor!” “OK let’s see”.

We went to his Facebook page and the first thing we came across was a photo of a child holding pistols and smiling widely. For the most part, everything you post online is in the public domain. If you say: “This is not my photo”, then this issue will need to be resolved in advance before the jury sees the photo. How can you prove that you are not in the photo? Or vice versa? Well, the photo was published from this account. And the account belongs to you.

Sometimes there are cases when someone publishes your photo in their own home – and you really wouldn’t want someone to see it. Suppose you have a drunk driving trial in progress. And in the photo it is very clearly visible that you were drunk, and the date coincides with the time when you were stopped on the road while drunk. And in this case, you do not have the right to indignation. You cannot appeal to the fact that you were filmed without asking.

You were in a public place. People just wanted to capture the moment. If you accidentally hit the shot while committing a crime, then everything is very bad. This photo is a clear proof of your guilt, and it is useless to deny it.

The ban on the use of illegally obtained data is used mainly in the law enforcement environment. It does not apply to a civilian. If you are stupid enough to let other people catch you at the crime scene, everything is very bad for you.

Picture Credit: Alexas_Fotos

The post Here’s How Social Media Can Be Used Against You In Court appeared first on Criminal Lawyer Profiles.

If you are arrested, then after being charged, you, or your Orange County DUI lawyer, must attend an arraignment in which you will be advised about the pending drunk driving charge asserted against him/her and the statutory penalties. This article covers that first court appearance and what happens at your arraignment.

What is an arraignment?

An arraignment is the first part of a criminal procedure that occurs in front of a judge or magistrate. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires people accused of crimes to be put on notice of the crime for which she/he is charged. If you stayed in jail,(due to warrants or your case being a felony), arraignments must occur within 48 hours after arrest in California. In Orange County, California, the arraignment usually occurs month to 45 days after the date of arrest.

What happens during aOrange County DUI arraignment?

At the arraignment, you, as the accused, will be informed of the charges pending against you and asked (1) if you want time to hire a private attorney, (2) if you want to apply for a public defender or (3) if you want to represent yourself.

Depending on the answers to those questions, the court may ask if you want an extension, or to enter a plea of guilty.  If you choose a lawyer (a public defender or a private DUI defense lawyer), the court will almost always continue the case, to allow you to have your attorney appear in court and handle the case. For cases where there is a high blood alcohol level, a prior, or an accident, certain conditions can be set by the judge at the arraignment. Usually, the conditions require that you attend AA classes each week while the case is pending, and agree not to drink or use drugs, and not to drive without a license and insurance while the case is pending.

The charges brought against a driver accused of drunk driving at the arraignment may consist of one of the following:

• Driving Under the Influence(Vehicle Code 23152(a)) 

• Driving While Above a .08% Blood Alcohol Level (Vehicle Code 23152(b)) 

• Driving While Under the Influence of Drugs ((Vehicle Code 23152(e)) 

• Driving Under the Influence and Causing Injury (Vehicle Code 23153) 


Once the case is charged, the judge or commissioner will explain the penalties associated with the offense. For example, the judge or magistrate will inform the accused of the minimum and maximum statutory jail time, in addition to the mandatory alcohol school and finds you defendant may face if convicted.

If you have a public defender, or you represent yourself, you will be required to be present at all future hearings.  If you don’t, one of the benefits of having a private lawyer is that they can make all the court appearances for you, from start to finish, throughout the case.

Regarding the public defender, not all will qualify.  A financial analysis will be done on income, expenses, and assets, and only if a defendant cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed by the court.

Should you retain an attorney?

Yes. There are several benefits of retaining an attorney if you are to be arraigned for a DUI. The most important benefit is an experienced attorney to answer your questions and to explain the law. Contact our DUI Defense Attorneys after your arrest and before your arraignment. You should never appear in an Orange County courthouse without an attorney.

Picture Credit: AJEL

The post What Will Happen at Your DUI Arraignment? appeared first on Criminal Lawyer Profiles.