The unseen side of DWI — it isn’t pretty

Too often, we hear the horror stories of DWI. A drunken driver rips apart a family, maiming or killing a father, a mother, a brother or sister. Since the outbreak of World War I in 1914, more Americans have died in drunken driving crashes than in both World Wars and the Vietnam War combined — 594,161 U.S. soldiers compared with 1.6 million DWI victims and counting, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

No doubt, DWI is a scourge. In the hands of a drunk, a car or truck is a loaded weapon, something we know all too well from the daily headlines.

But there is an unseen side of DWI — the average Joe or Jane who is arrested for driving while intoxicated. What happens after a drunk is pulled over by police?

In recent weeks, the Herald has explored this side of DWI in an in-depth series by reporter Sari Zeidler. In a police simulation, Zeidler had herself arrested. She was never drunk and never booked for real. She did, however, follow the arrest process through from start to finish, from being subjected to field sobriety tests, to having her fingerprints taken, to being handcuffed and locked up in a cold, steel-and-cement holding cell. Afterward she examined the long, arduous and expensive court process that all DWI offenders are subjected to. It isn’t pretty.

Our hope in publishing the series was to show the potential costs of DWI for the average offender. What we learned is that there is an enormous price to pay if you get caught driving drunk — even if you never hurt anyone.

First, there is the fear and humiliation that come with this kind of arrest. Otherwise law-abiding citizens are thrown into jail and the court system side by side with murderers and pimps. For the average Joe or Jane, it is a living nightmare.

Second, there is the cost of defending a drunken driving charge. According to Nassau County’s leading DWI defense attorneys, even a relatively low-level case can cost upward of $20,000 to defend — even without what prosecutors call an “aggravating factor” — an accident or a death. In an accident, particularly when a victim is severely injured, a DWI offender can be subjected to hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil charges, in addition to criminal penalties.