AcceptingChange

Your 1st DUI costs around $10,000.

A driving-under-the-influence conviction is a financial wrecking ball. A typical DUI costs about $10,000 by the time you pay bail, fines, fees and insurance, even if you didn't hit anything or hurt anybody.

The penalties are intended to be discouraging. Alcohol played a role in nearly 41% of U.S. automobile fatalities in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available. That's 17,602 deaths, a number nearly unchanged over the past decade.


http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...0RideHome.aspx

suki44883

Man...that's for sure! Everyone thinks it won't happen to them. Well, I'm here to tell you it most definitely CAN happen to you! The billboards that say...Drink and Drive - It's not worth it! are so true. It's not worth it, and more than likely, you can't afford it, either. Don't be a schmuck. If you drink, don't drive. If you drive, don't drink.

Still Waters

Not to downplay this but to add: I'd like to see the numbers on how many accidents due to using a cell phone while driving.

Taking5

I'd like to see this too, but only if were accompanied by the figures of people whose life was saved because people on cell phones called 911 immediately.

IMO cell phones are a net plus to public safety.

traderjane

AT LEAST $10,000. Be careful, my friends.

Zencat

Quite the expensive wake-up call...for those that can wake-up that is. For the rest...jails, institutions and death.

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Firehazard

And some still drive drunk with that knowledge. INSANITY

MNGirlyGirl

I know someone who got pulled over because she was texting while driving drunk! Get this, she got off with a careless. Sad.

flutter

Pretty happy I'm never at risk for one of those!

SexyCeloryStick

sad fact is, I was here posting weeks before mine happened. Almost everyone who reponded to my posts knew this was going to happen.... bu... My first DUI:

My car (KBB value)- 4750
Damage to bus - 5700
Towing service and impound - 266
lawyer fees - 2500
WHIP program (court ordered) - 400
License reinstatement - 475
Hospital bills (after insurance) - 188
legal fines- 300

respect of family and friends - priceless
4 seconds of a sound of a car crash- that will never leave your head
(if you are coherent enough) a few agonizing seconds wondering if you just killed anyone

Hell, you could even add on lost money due to missed days at work, not to mention the money i spent to do all this havoc in the first place

The worst of it comes down to family and friends. You have any idea what its like to have everyone knowing that you had a DUI, whien you are just all sitting around watching tv and see a DUI commercial come on? talk about awkward for everyone

My DUI was dropped however since I didnt blow... however the charges are still there, and I dont get to drive until may 2010. If I was convicted of a DUI, my insurance would have been over 300 dolalrs monthy, and I have a prior clean driving record

tiburon88

My first DUI conviction it did not me nearly 10,000. Perhaps I was lucky but my grand total was probably "only" around 4,000.

tib

littlebluedog

Me too. But like flutter said, it's nice to not have to worry about that stuff now! $7000 later.