New York DWI Lawyer Blog

"Binge" Drinking among college students has been a big issue in the news recently, highlighted by the August 2008 death of 23 year old Ed Trapasso, a Valhalla resident and recent college graduate who had friends over to celebrate his graduation. Mr. Trapasso is one of 1,700 college students aged 18-24 who die each year from unintentional alcohol injuries, based upon research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks in two hours for men and four drinks in two hours for women.

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, found a consistent 44% of students over an 8 year period fit the description of binge drinkers. Binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning, which causes vomiting, seizures, slow and irregular breathing, hypothermia (low body temperature) and in more severe cases, death. Dr. Michael Skelly, an emergency room doctor at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, found that the number of young people he had treated for alcohol poisoning had more than doubled between 2003 and 2007!

Other annual statistics compiled by the NIAAA for college students who abuse alcohol: approximately 600,000 are injured in DWI accidents and other types of accidents; close to 700,000 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking; almost 100,000 are victims of sexual abuse; and approximately 400,000 have unprotected sex, with more than 100,000 not recalling whether they consented to sexual relations.

Lower Hudson Valley colleges have joined forces to curb excessive drinking, forming the "Westchester Colleges Consortium on Alcohol and Other Drugs." The group is comprised of law enforcement, community organizations, schools and other organizations. For example, at Purchase College, there is a freshman orientation session addressing drug and alcohol abuse, and the college also requires students to take an online course called "AlcoholEdu", which aims to have students make more intelligent decisions about drinking. Students are provided with a blood alcohol calculator and instructions to assist friends struggling with alcohol abuse.

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The New York Drinking Driver Program (DDP) is a 7 week program designed to assist drivers convicted of driving while intoxicated, driving while ability impaired, or driving under the influence of drugs to make better and more appropriate driving decisions in the future. The program involves classroom education, screening, and in certain cases, evaluation and treatment.

Of critical importance, satisfactory completion of the DDP is required before drivers convicted of a New York DWI or New York DWAI will be permitted to have their license or (in the case of out of state drivers) their New York driving privileges reinstated. The DDP is 7 weeks long and each class is between 2-3 hours, for a total of 16 hours. The cost for the program includes an initial fee of $75.00 paid when the application is submitted, and then a fee of approximately $225.00 on the date of the first session. If you do not attend all seven weekly sessions, you cannot obtain your conditional license. After satisfactory completion of the program, the participant will receive a certificate of completion which must be furnished to the Court as part of the sentence for the DWI. Importantly, especially for those convicted of more than one drunk driving offense, a motorist is only eligible to participate in the DDP once every five years.

In order to enter the program, the driver must go to the local DMV office after sentencing with paperwork obtained from the Court, known as an "Order of Suspension or Revocation." It generally takes approximately three weeks to get enrolled in the DDP.

A conditional license, which the driver uses until he or she gets his or her license reinstated, can be used to travel to and from work; to and from a class at an accredited school or college; to transport children to and from a child care facility; to and from DDP classes; to and from medical examinations as long as the necessity of the visit is certified in writing by the physician; to and from DMV with regard to the conditional license, and for court-ordered probation activities. A conditional license is not valid for driving a taxi or any motor vehicle that requires the driver to have a Commercial Driver License (CDL).

Continue reading " New York Drinking Driver Program Primer " »