A lot of jobs and careers require that an individual obtains and keeps current a license issued by the state or an approved licensing authority. Depending on the jurisdiction, this could include teachers, health care professionals, commercial drivers, engineers or those that work in the service industry, such as a bartender or hair dresser.
Those that operate a vehicle as a part of their job description often require a special driver’s license, and this applies to those that operate a taxi. A Gerrardstwon taxi driver was recently arrested for drunk driving after a Berkeley County Sheriff’s deputy observed the vehicle swerving over the center line.
The erratic driving prompted the deputy to pull the green taxi over and ask the driver to submit to a field sobriety test -- a type of assessment often considered unreliable. After he failed the first test, the officer conducted another, and another. The officer also asked the driver to submit to two Breathalyzer tests; one test returned a result of a 0.155 BAC while the second returned a reading of 0.210.
Ignoring the fact that the two breath tests results wouldn’t fit the definition of precise when compared, we want to focus on another aspect of this case. We want to focus on the licensure factor mentioned at the beginning of the post.
It was unclear from the report whether or not this taxi driver was on duty at the time of the incident. Even when an individual isn’t operating under the special license at the time, a drunk driving conviction still has the potential to affect the status of this licensure or cause them to lose their license as a result of the DUI. This may include a truck driver that could have their commercial driver’s license revoked or it might be a pilot that is grounded after an arrest.
The point is that in many cases there is often much more at stake than even the criminal sanctions associated with a conviction. Fighting these consequences is something that those charged with a DUI should take seriously.
Source: Herald-Mail Media, “W.Va. taxi driver charged with DUI,” April 7, 2014