What Happens If You Get Into An Accident While Drunk In Tucson, Arizona?
Driving drunk in Tucson has major consequences, though they become even more serious if you get into an accident. Most DUI charges are Class 1 misdemeanors, but if you are in an accident that causes injuries or fatalities while you are drunk, you may face felony charges.
Potential Charges For A DUI With An Accident
Driving under the influence in Tucson always has the potential to cause a crash. If you cause an accident while you are driving drunk, you may be charged with endangerment, aggravated assault, negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter, or second-degree murder.
This means your misdemeanor charges would quickly upgrade to felony charges, where prison sentences are quite lengthy. If you are convicted, you will be required to serve a mandatory prison sentence without an option for parole.
DUI Car Accident And Endangerment
If you are involved in a first-time DUI and cause an accident without any injuries while having a passenger in your vehicle, this may result in an endangerment charge in addition to a DUI. While endangerment tends to be charged as a Class 1 misdemeanor, it can be a felony in certain situations, and convictions may mean you spend four months to two years in prison.
DUI With Injury
If you cause an accident with injuries while you are drunk, you may face aggravated assault charges. A conviction could put you behind bars for seven to 21 years on Class 2 felony charges.
DUI Car Accident Resulting In Fatalities
If you get behind the wheel while drunk and cause an accident that kills someone, including an unborn baby, you will face serious consequences if convicted. You may face a homicide charge if you were criminally negligent while driving your vehicle, a Class 4 felony.
Criminal negligence is defined as not perceiving the major risks of your actions. For this charge, you may wind up in prison for up to four years and have to pay a fine of up to $150,000.
Reckless actions in a drunk driving crash that caused fatalities may result in DUI vehicular manslaughter, a Class 2 felony. This is even more serious than being charged with negligent homicide.
You may be sentenced to three years to 12.5 years on aggravated charges. If you are convicted of a dangerous felony, then the mandatory minimum for prison time is seven years, though it could be up to 21 years.
Second-degree murder charges may also be applied if you acted in such a reckless way that would be deemed significant enough of a risk to kill another person. However, the prosecutor must prove that you displayed an extreme indifference to human life. This is a Class 1 felony that has a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. The aggravated sentence may result in 25 years of prison time.
For these reasons, you should speak with an attorney immediately if you cause an accident while drunk.
