How To Avoid Getting Pulled Over For DUI

The easiest way to avoid getting pulled over, arrested and charged with DUI is of course, don’t drink and drive. However, DUI offenders frequently ask, why did the officer stop me? Was I giving any signs that I may have been under the influence of alcohol and possibly above the legal limit of BAC? Was I driving erratically? And what gave him probable cause to put me through a society test?

Some excerpts from The DUI Book explain how the law enforcement operates in identifying high risk drivers who may be possibly above the legal blood alcohol limit.

The NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an arm of the federal Department of Transportation) has identified a number of visual driving cues (or clues, as they are sometimes referred to by officers) that NHTSA suggests police officers use to identify possible alcohol-impaired driving. Because this material is widely distributed to police agencies and included in the recommended NHTSA training program, it has become the initial basis upon which most officers begin to document their probable cause for stopping a vehicle in drunk driving enforcement.

This material was first published through NHTSA in 1981 as Visual Detection of Driving While Intoxicated - An Explanation of the DWI Detection Guide (DOT-HS-805711). The list is based upon 20 driving cues (clues) that NHTSA determined, from some detailed research, were the best ones for identifying likely night-time drunk drivers (.10 BAC or more) and setting them apart from night-time sober drivers. The clues were based on field studies where 4,600 patrol stops were correlated with BAC measurements. NHTSA published information suggesting that the 20 cues (clues) could be associated with 90% of all impaired driving detections.

Source: The DUI Book