Maine DUI Minor Laws
Like other United States, Maine has a zero tolerance law for minors who drink and drive. The blood alcohol content level for adults is 0.08 percent. Some states allow minors to have under a blood alcohol content percentage of 0.02, but Maine has a much lower limit. If a minor is found intoxicated to any degree while driving, he or she will be arrested and charged with driving under the influence. In order to convict a minor, a breath test, urine test, or blood test must show the blood alcohol content was on the scale at all.
Drunk Driving Cases
Individuals in Maine can be prosecuted for drunk driving on three different terms: operating under the influence, operating while intoxicated, and driving under the influence. Under these terms Maine has two different charging cases. A case can be brought to court and then result in fines, incarceration, driver’s license suspension, drug and alcohol education programs, and ignition interlock device.
Another case is handled through the Bureau of Motor Vehicle where an individual’s driver’s license is to be suspended. Three weeks following an arrest an individual will be notified of driver’s license suspension through suspension from the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Such a suspension can be appealed if action is taken within ten days.
Driving Under the Influence Consequences
Maine DUI consequences are determined by prior DUI offenses. However Maine does have a washout period where a prior DUI offense cannot be used to aggravate current charges after ten years have passed. DUI offenses can also be aggravated if an individual’s blood alcohol content is twice the legal limit, if a minor was in the motor vehicle at the time of the arrest, if he or she was driving thirty miles per hour or more over the speed limit, or if another was injured.
A first DUI offense can earn ninety days of driver’s license suspension and fine of five hundred dollars. In aggravated circumstances a first offense can earn incarceration of three hundred sixty-four days, a fine of two thousand dollars, and ninety days of driver’s license suspension. Other aggravated first offenses can earn additional fines and incarceration.
Second DUI offenses can earn incarceration for a minimum of seven days, a fine of seven hundred dollars, and eighteen months of driver’s license suspension. Minors with a second DUI offense will have driver’s license suspension for two years at a minimum. If an individual refuses chemical testing, punishments will increase to twelve days of incarceration and nine hundred dollars in fines.
A third DUI offense can earn a minimum of thirty days of incarceration, eleven hundred dollars in fines, and four years of driver’s license suspension. Aggravated third DUI offenses can earn up to five years in prison and five thousand dollars in fines. Refusing to take a chemical test for a third offense can result in forty days of incarceration and fourteen hundred dollars in fines. A fourth offense or subsequent offense can earn a minimum of six months of incarceration, a twenty-one hundred-dollar fine, and six years of driver’s license suspension. An aggravated fourth offense can earn five years in prison and five thousand dollars in fines.