worriedmum
New Member
I originally posted this on the 'Legal Advice' forum but as I haven't had a reply there I thought I'd post it here as well as time is ticking by.
My 27 year old daughter was arrested at 01.30 on 30/1/11 for drink driving after hitting a street sign in her car. She had been out for the evening and was the last of her group to go home. She tried to get a taxi but couldn't. Normally she would have called me to pick her up but as I was babysitting I wouldn't have been able to go out so she unfortunately decided to drive home, which is totally out of character as she is usually the one who gives lifts to others as she is happy to not drink. When she had the accident she drove round the corner but as the car was making a noise she got out to see what the damage was. Some police officers were up the road talking to somebody else and saw her get out of the car, came over to see what the problem was and breathalysed her. She failed the test with a reading of 77. She was taken to the police station where they took another breath sample and at 03.00 she was allowed to phone me to tell me what had happened. She was very upset on the phone so I spoke to the officer and asked if I could pick her up. They said that I couldn't as she needed to be interviewed and that couldn't happen until her alcohol reading was below the legal limit. She was detained overnight and released at about 10.45 am.
She has no previous convictions and a clean driving licence. She has undergone a random breath test in the past which proved negative. She is a single mum. She works 21 hours a week to fit in with school times and although work is only 3 miles away losing her licence would mean she has to reduce her working hours (if her employer agrees) to have time to walk her daughter to school, bus or walk to work and then leave in time to collect her again.
Not being familiar with legal procedures please could you tell me if correct procedure was followed and what she should expect when she goes to court on 17 February?
Thanks for reading.
My 27 year old daughter was arrested at 01.30 on 30/1/11 for drink driving after hitting a street sign in her car. She had been out for the evening and was the last of her group to go home. She tried to get a taxi but couldn't. Normally she would have called me to pick her up but as I was babysitting I wouldn't have been able to go out so she unfortunately decided to drive home, which is totally out of character as she is usually the one who gives lifts to others as she is happy to not drink. When she had the accident she drove round the corner but as the car was making a noise she got out to see what the damage was. Some police officers were up the road talking to somebody else and saw her get out of the car, came over to see what the problem was and breathalysed her. She failed the test with a reading of 77. She was taken to the police station where they took another breath sample and at 03.00 she was allowed to phone me to tell me what had happened. She was very upset on the phone so I spoke to the officer and asked if I could pick her up. They said that I couldn't as she needed to be interviewed and that couldn't happen until her alcohol reading was below the legal limit. She was detained overnight and released at about 10.45 am.
She has no previous convictions and a clean driving licence. She has undergone a random breath test in the past which proved negative. She is a single mum. She works 21 hours a week to fit in with school times and although work is only 3 miles away losing her licence would mean she has to reduce her working hours (if her employer agrees) to have time to walk her daughter to school, bus or walk to work and then leave in time to collect her again.
Not being familiar with legal procedures please could you tell me if correct procedure was followed and what she should expect when she goes to court on 17 February?
Thanks for reading.
