Around the world, not just in Washington State, DUI laws are becoming tougher. Case in point, Russian legislators called Tuesday for stronger measures against drunken driving after a gruesome weekend accident in which a car crashed into a bus stop at 125 mph, killing seven people -- five of them teenagers with learning disabilities, the other two a teacher and her husband. The driver of the car has prior history for drunken driving, and officials said his blood-alcohol level in this recent incident suggested that he had ingested the equivalent of a full bottle of vodka.
An outcry erupted after news reports of the accident were broadcast on Russian television, including a video showing the driver, Alexander Maksimov, 30, telling an investigator that he "drank for two days" before getting behind the wheel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that present Russian DUI laws do not work to curb drinking and driving and that the reckless behavior of the driver reflected the overall loss of respect for the law in post-Soviet Russia -- "With the opening of the gates — the gates of freedom — we started to think that absolutely everything was allowed," President Putin said.
As an apparent result of the incident, traffic police officers conducted a crackdown on drunken driving Monday, detaining nearly 130 offenders in one day. As is well known by now, The Washington State Patrol has also “cracked down” on DUI’s by implementing its “Target Zero Program”, which is similar in scope to the Seattle Police Department’s “DUI Squad”. It is clear that legislative bodies and law enforcement personnel around the world are intent on curbing the volume of drinking drivers.
Because of the very real and very significant driver’s licensing ramifications associated with DUI/ Physical Control cases, it is absolutely imperative that an individual arrested for DUI/ Physical Control obtain quality professional legal representation from a Seattle DUI attorney. SQ Attorneys is a team of quality professionals. The Seattle DUI lawyers at SQ Attorneys have an abundance of knowledge and expertise in dealing with not only DUI/ Physical Control criminal charges, but also the associated Department of Licensing administrative hearings which arise out of a DUI/ Physical Control arrest. These attributes are of paramount importance when a person’s Washington State driving privileges are at stake.