Articles
North Carolina DUI
November 15, 2004
"Several million DWI warrants still waiting to be served in U.S."
A 2001 study conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated several million DWI warrants are waiting to be served nationwide. In North Carolina, more than 5,000 drunken driving cases each year involving defendants who test over the legal limit or refuse alcohol tests never show up in court. Though the case remains open for prosecution if the suspects are found and the state suspends their licenses, fewer than a third of North Carolina DWI suspects failing to appear in court in 1999 have since been convicted.
By North Carolina DWI laws, a driver commits an offense of driving under the influence if the alcohol level is 0.08 or more. Statewide, about 11 percent of DWI suspects who test over the alcohol limit or refuse tests get their cases dismissed by failing to appear in court. Judges with DWI defendants that do not appear in court usually instruct police to arrest them, but busy law enforcement officers are not as aggressive about tracking them down, according to some North Carolina prosecutors.
Failure to appear is a major problem in DWI cases that continues to be overlooked, according to highway safety advocates. In North Carolina, setting bail too low contributes to the problem, some police say.
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