Charleston, SC DUI/DWI Law Blog

A 24-year old South Carolina man has been charged with felony DUI after allegedly striking and killing a pedestrian who was in a crosswalk. The accident occurred at approximately 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and the driver is now currently being held in the county jail.

The driver has also been charged with driving under suspension and for failure to surrender his suspended license. It has also not been reported if he as of yet has an attorney.

There is a push to change South Carolina legislation requiring first time South Carolina DUI offenders to have an ignition interlock system installed in their vehicle once a driver's license suspension has been lifted. The reasoning behind such a bill is the assertion that a first time offender is really not a first time offender. In other words, alleged suspects had probably been over the legal limit a number of times before actually being pulled over by law enforcement officers.

Such legislation obviously is controversial and this is possibly the reason why it has been stalled in both South Carolina legislative houses. Currently two or more DUI convictions are required before such interlock systems are installed. Once installed, the driver would have to take an alcohol breath test before the system will unlock and the driver can then start up the car.

For South Carolina residents charged with DUI, there are number of reasons for questioning the results of blood alcohol tests. There are only a limited amount of circumstances where blood alcohol tests should be conducted to begin with and everyone charged with DUI should be granted the right to refuse to take such a test.

The number one reason why such results should be questioned, however, is the fact that such results are not always reliable. In Colorado, the department of health is now re-testing more than 1,700 blood alcohol samples as an employee purportedly misreported several test results. Simply stated, he reported blood alcohol levels incorrectly and such incorrect results may have resulted in DUI convictions.

The danger of stereotyping is that the stereotypes are often wrong. One cannot judge a criminal act by the alleged perpetrator's appearance, but rather by the evidence. Criminal charges must be proven by the prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt.

The prosecution will need to prove that an 84-year-old Charleston man is guilty of a felony DUI. According to a news report, the charges came as a result of an accident involving the 84-year-old man and a 29-year-old motorcyclist.