DWI :( Will they take back my acceptance?

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That's probably a question for the schools themselves. You may want to call anonymously and ask. In your state, does DWI=DUI or is DWI<DUI? If the latter, it's not as big a deal. If the former, it might get your file reviewed... hard to say.
 
FutureMD111 said:
So I made a HUGE mistake. Last night I drove after having about 2 drinks and I crashed my car. I am being charged with a DWI and I'm getting a lawyer and all that.
I got into both Texas A&M and Texas Tech Paul Foster medical school. I am worried, do you think they will withdraw my acceptance??!!
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I would be surprised if they did, but not shocked. Only way to find out is to call them up Monday and be very forthright with exactly what happened; they already won't be happy and I'm sure they'd be even less thrilled if they later found out you hid some detail of the accident.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to say; us speculating here isn't going to give you any peace of mind.
 
apumic said:
That's probably a question for the schools themselves. You may want to call anonymously and ask. In your state, does DWI=DUI or is DWI<DUI? If the latter, it's not as big a deal. If the former, it might get your file reviewed... hard to say.
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I'm pretty sure in Texas, DWI>DUI
 
get a good lawyer and try and get the dwi dropped to something less serious
 
Don't say a word about it unless asked and even then talk with a lawyer first. Just because you had a few drinks and crashed a car doesn't mean your guilty, your just dumb. But get the best freaking attorney possible. I don't mean get a phonebook and flip through the yellow pages.. And fit it until the end, if you get a good attorney he/she could drag it on way in to your first or maybe even 2nd year of med school
 
Poliscidoc said:
Don't say a word about it unless asked and even then talk with a lawyer first. Just because you had a few drinks and crashed a car doesn't mean your guilty, your just dumb. But get the best freaking attorney possible. I don't mean get a phonebook and flip through the yellow pages.. And fit it until the end, if you get a good attorney he/she could drag it on way in to your first or maybe even 2nd year of med school
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Really? Having drinks, becoming impaired, then driving and crashing the car does not mean he was guilty of DWI?

What does it mean then? And what does it take to be guilty of such an offense?
 
xanthomondo said:
Really? Having drinks, becoming impaired, then driving and crashing the car does not mean he was guilty of DWI?

What does it mean then? And what does it take to be guilty of such an offense?
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Actually in the U.S. your innocent until proven guilty. With a good enough attorney he may be able to get off with a lesser offense, thus making him not guilty of a DWI (even if he really deserved it).
 
xanthomondo said:
Really? Having drinks, becoming impaired, then driving and crashing the car does not mean he was guilty of DWI?

What does it mean then? And what does it take to be guilty of such an offense?
Click to expand...

You seem to have inserted the phrase "becoming impaired". He said he had two drinks - he was not necessarily over any legal limit nor was he necessarily "intoxicated" or "under the influence".
 
Interestingly enough, in Texas while the legal limit is .08, you can also be arrested if an officer thinks your driving is "impaired" regardless of BAC level. It's not as easy as "were you above .08."
 
Omar Gooding said:
Actually in the U.S. your innocent until proven guilty. With a good enough attorney he may be able to get off with a lesser offense, thus making him not guilty of a DWI (even if he really deserved it).
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OK, maybe in the court of law the OP isn't guilty (yet). But he is guilty, he admitted to doing it.

theWUbear said:
You seem to have inserted the phrase "becoming impaired". He said he had two drinks - he was not necessarily over any legal limit nor was he necessarily "intoxicated" or "under the influence".
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Well he was impaired enough to have crashed his car. I'm also pretty (I don't know the laws in that state, though) sure that the police wouldn't have hit him with a DWI if he didn't blow a significant BAC.
 
GoSpursGo said:
Interestingly enough, in Texas while the legal limit is .08, you can also be arrested if an officer thinks your driving is "impaired" regardless of BAC level. It's not as easy as "were you above .08."
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Then why are there so many crappy drivers on the road in Houston? 😀 I'd arrest all of them for being "impaired".

Also, how does that even hold up in court? I imagine you could get out of that pretty easily with a good lawyer.
 
Jolie South said:
Also, how does that even hold up in court? I imagine you could get out of that pretty easily with a good lawyer.
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:shrug: I'm not sure. I actually just looked it up this morning because this thread made me curious, as it seemed unlikely to me that the OP would be over .08 with 2 drinks. I would imagine in practice it's not used often except in cases where, say, someone crashes their car. But I don't really know.
 
Jolie South said:
Then why are there so many crappy drivers on the road in Houston? 😀 I'd arrest all of them for being "impaired".

Also, how does that even hold up in court? I imagine you could get out of that pretty easily with a good lawyer.
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Agreed. I'm not sure about Texas law, but in Arizona that wouldn't hold at all.
 
GoSpursGo said:
Interestingly enough, in Texas while the legal limit is .08, you can also be arrested if an officer thinks your driving is "impaired" regardless of BAC level. It's not as easy as "were you above .08."
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Then a good lawyer could almost certainly get him out of it. I can't believe they have something so subjective. "Eh, i feel like you can't drive well, you're goin to jail".
 
ronakp10 said:
Agreed. I'm not sure about Texas law, but in Arizona that wouldn't hold at all.
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All I know is what I got from the Texas Department of Transportation:

TXDOT said:
In Texas, the legal limit for intoxication is .08 BAC (blood or breath alcohol concentration). If law enforcement thinks your driving is impaired, you can be stopped and arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) regardless of your BAC.
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Whether or not the "impaired" part is commonly enforced or easy to fight, idunno.
 
You would probably be eligible for a pretrial diversion, if you're in Texas and if this is your first offense. Pretrial diversion would be a non-conviction type "probation" that will, upon completion, result in your charges being dismissed. Once dismissed, two years from now, you can have it expunged and wiped from your record.

Generally prosecutors have sympathy for medical school students, especially if you explain you're applying right now. I've heard of prosecutors completely dropping charges against students just because they're applying to medical school. You just have to have a good lawyer who will talk to the prosecutor for you or will be willing to help you apply for pretrial diversion.

In the mean time, this will be on your record as "pending" and, like everyone else said, it's generally a good idea to approach the medical schools about it first rather than letting them find out on your background check. Most likely, this will not be resolved before your background check with Certiphi is complete. See how this all plays out and once you've found what your options are (pretrial, plea bargain, etc). Go to the medical schools with this only after you've figured out what will happen.
 
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NoMoreAMCAS said:
Then a good lawyer could almost certainly get him out of it. I can't believe they have something so subjective. "Eh, i feel like you can't drive well, you're goin to jail".
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I kind of doubt "You crashed your car"="Eh, I feel like you can't drive well" in terms of evidence.

But again, I'm kind of speculating. If anybody has some actual knowledge on something like this is handled and whether that "impaired" clause is easy to attack if you have a good lawyer, I'd be interested to hear.
 
People give me crap for absolutely having zero drinks if I know I have to drive. This reaffirms my case. Why would I risk all that hard work (physically & emotionally) and throw it away for 1 night? 👍
 
GoSpursGo said:
All I know is what I got from the Texas Department of Transportation:



Whether or not the "impaired" part is commonly enforced or easy to fight, idunno.
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Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, impairment is judged a lot like recklessness; they're both related to competence. If you crash your car, you have "proven" incompetent, whether or not the crash was caused by your "intoxication" (nobody is intoxicated with a BAC that low, except maybe the people/girls who try to use "intoxication" as a justification for doing things they wouldn't normally do).

Quotes for emphasis--these seem like legally murky waters, which is why the good lawyer is a good suggestion.
 
If the schools already gave you a CBC then there's no way for them to find this out. I wouldn't worry about it.

What did you admit that you had two beers?
 
flowrate said:
unfortunately, if i remember correctly, impairment is judged a lot like recklessness; they're both related to competence. If you crash your car, you have "proven" incompetent, whether or not the crash was caused by your "intoxication" (nobody is intoxicated with a bac that low, except maybe the people/girls who try to use "intoxication" as a justification for doing things they wouldn't normally do).

Quotes for emphasis--these seem like legally murky waters, which is why the good lawyer is a good suggestion.
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qft
 
GoSpursGo said:
I kind of doubt "You crashed your car"="Eh, I feel like you can't drive well" in terms of evidence.

But again, I'm kind of speculating. If anybody has some actual knowledge on something like this is handled and whether that "impaired" clause is easy to attack if you have a good lawyer, I'd be interested to hear.
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Thousands of sober americans wreck their cars every day. And i'm sure most don't get a "you're impaired" ticket/jail trip.

I think he could easily get out of it with a decent lawyer. I'd definitely give it a shot before i just paid my fine or whatever it is.
 
NoMoreAMCAS said:
Thousands of sober americans wreck their cars every day. And i'm sure most don't get a "you're impaired" ticket/jail trip.

I think he could easily get out of it with a decent lawyer. I'd definitely give it a shot before i just paid my fine or whatever it is.
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Please. I think he has had enough to drink.
 
FutureMD111 said:
So I made a HUGE mistake. Last night I drove after having about 2 drinks and I crashed my car. I am being charged with a DWI and I'm getting a lawyer and all that.
I got into both Texas A&M and Texas Tech Paul Foster medical school. I am worried, do you think they will withdraw my acceptance??!!
Click to expand...

I hope they do revoke your acceptances. If you drank enough to get a DWI, you shouldn't have been driving. I don't care about your life, but all those lives that were at risk with you on the road. Ask the people who have lost friends and family because some idiot decided it would be okay to drive impaired. I strongly believe that people who drink and drive should get very harsh punishments, and if it were up to me, I'd revoke your acceptance.
 
NoMoreAMCAS said:
Thousands of sober americans wreck their cars every day. And i'm sure most don't get a "you're impaired" ticket/jail trip.

I think he could easily get out of it with a decent lawyer. I'd definitely give it a shot before i just paid my fine or whatever it is.
Click to expand...

Hopefully he didn't tell the cop "I had 2 beers." Everyone knows that when people on COPS say they had "2 beers" they had more like "5 shots of jager and 2 beers."
 
GoSpursGo said:
I kind of doubt "You crashed your car"="Eh, I feel like you can't drive well" in terms of evidence.

But again, I'm kind of speculating. If anybody has some actual knowledge on something like this is handled and whether that "impaired" clause is easy to attack if you have a good lawyer, I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

not everyone who crashes his car gets arrested for DUI/DWI, obviously. there is obviously more to the OP's story than what s/he has shared here. a car crash will attract the attention of a police officer, to be sure. but then when the officer investigates, it is quickly apparent to him whether the driver has been drinking (officers receive a lot of training wrt such things). among the signs are: the smell of alcohol on the driver, bloodshot eyes, nystagmus, impaired coordination. the officer may then ask the driver to perform field sobriety tests (note: if these are done after a car crash, any half-decent defense attorney can make complete hay of the results). if the driver is injured as a result of the crash, there often will be a blood draw done at the hospital and the level of impairment can be determined). and, of course, there's the BAC test in the field.

I don't know the specifics of TX law in this area, but in other states drivers can be convicted with a BAC below 0.8 (or whatever the legal limit is in the particular jurisdiction) based on bad driving/physical impairment (the key phrase in the law generally is "affected by" drugs or alcohol...and of course with drugs the BAC will be 0.0). also, drivers sometimes refuse to take the BAC and ultimately can be convicted of DUI without that (again "affected by" comes into play; also, the refusal to take the BAC test is circumstantial evidence of impairment).

finally, if the driver is under 21 y.o., a much lower BAC (0.2 some places) is enough to convict of DUI
 
I'll echo the advice already stated. Get a lawyer and do not contact medical schools unless your lawyer advises you to do so. It could very easily be pled down to a lesser charge or dropped entirely depending on the circumstances surrounding your case.

On a side note, it is definitely possible to get a DUI in many states even when you are "under the legal limit." It isn't something that you'll get laughed out of court either. It is the officer's word versus your own and I'll let you guess whose word carries more weight in the court room.
 
NoMoreAMCAS said:
Thousands of sober americans wreck their cars every day. And i'm sure most don't get a "you're impaired" ticket/jail trip.

I think he could easily get out of it with a decent lawyer. I'd definitely give it a shot before i just paid my fine or whatever it is.
Click to expand...

Nobody's telling him to just pay his fine (and in retrospect, I definitely retract my advice earlier to just call up the schools immediately Monday before speaking with a lawyer). He definitely needs a lawyer. But there's a big difference between those thousands of Americans who wreck there cars and the OP--most of them hadn't had 2 drinks in a state where you can be arrested for simply being "impaired."

I'm not saying he deserves to get the DWI, I'm just saying it's obviously a lot murkier than if he hadn't been drinking. Anyone trying to say it'll be hard or easy to get out of this is just speculating.
 
strummin said:
I hope they do revoke your acceptances. If you drank enough to get a DWI, you shouldn't have been driving. I don't care about your life, but all those lives that were at risk with you on the road. Ask the people who have lost friends and family because some idiot decided it would be okay to drive impaired. I strongly believe that people who drink and drive should get very harsh punishments, and if it were up to me, I'd revoke your acceptance.
Click to expand...

Hey, Joe Dogooder,
Go preach elsewhere. Don't hurt yourself falling off your high horse
 
strummin said:
I hope they do revoke your acceptances. If you drank enough to get a DWI, you shouldn't have been driving. I don't care about your life, but all those lives that were at risk with you on the road. Ask the people who have lost friends and family because some idiot decided it would be okay to drive impaired. I strongly believe that people who drink and drive should get very harsh punishments, and if it were up to me, I'd revoke your acceptance.
Click to expand...

It was two beers. That's not a danger to anyone and it's extremely unlikely it would have been anywhere near the legal limit. They were as good as sober when they wrecked their car.

The only way I could see two beers being a danger is if you're of a race that doesn't have a fast alcohol dehydrogenase. I know a lot of Asians that are fully intoxicated after 1 or 2 beers. I know that seems like a stereotype, but there's an actual scientific reason for it.
 
The OP didn't mention the results of his breath or blood test, so we are taking him on his word that he only had two drinks.
 
Simplify said:
The OP didn't mention the results of his breath or blood test, so we are taking him on his word that he only had two drinks.
Click to expand...

For that reason I was going to call shenanigans on this topic. But with the revelation that he/she's in Texas I can't say I'd be surprised if they convict him of a DWI with nothing but the officer's word. This was the state that was arresting people for public intoxication INSIDE bars, remember.
 
You crashed after two beers?
 
strummin said:
I hope they do revoke your acceptances. If you drank enough to get a DWI, you shouldn't have been driving. I don't care about your life, but all those lives that were at risk with you on the road. Ask the people who have lost friends and family because some idiot decided it would be okay to drive impaired. I strongly believe that people who drink and drive should get very harsh punishments, and if it were up to me, I'd revoke your acceptance.
Click to expand...

I think this is a completely insensitive statement and unfortunately I do not have time to elaborate right now, but OP, I hope that you do not get your acceptances revoked. I am also glad that you and no one else were hurt.
 
xanthomondo said:
lol, because people who aren't so wrapped up in their own lives and actually worry about killing innocent people are now labeled "Joe Dogooder"
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2 beers is considered sober. Maybe tired drivers should be charged with DWI. And drivers talking on their cell phones. And drivers listening to the radio. All of these are distractions that lead to more deaths than 2 beers.
 
softmed said:
2 beers is considered sober. Maybe tired drivers should be charged with DWI. And drivers talking on their cell phones. And drivers listening to the radio. All of these are distractions that lead to more deaths than 2 beers.
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If this were true, most residents would probably get one.
 
.
 
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lol you were out of it after only 2 drinks. funny.
 
strummin said:
I hope they do revoke your acceptances. If you drank enough to get a DWI, you shouldn't have been driving. I don't care about your life, but all those lives that were at risk with you on the road. Ask the people who have lost friends and family because some idiot decided it would be okay to drive impaired. I strongly believe that people who drink and drive should get very harsh punishments, and if it were up to me, I'd revoke your acceptance.
Click to expand...

blah blah blah
 
If he was "intoxicated" which is a maybe. I wont take his word that he only had 2 drinks. Why? Because if he had only taken to drinks and was sober, the police officer would not have noticed. The OP could have just said he was tired. Until we know for a fact that he was or wasn't intoxicated, then I would go either way. Take his acceptance or let him slide by. If he was indeed intoxicated then they should take his acceptance because he has proven himself incompetent to even make rational decisions.
 
I think besides the BAC, one crucial thing we are missing is the OP's age. If the OP isn't 21 yet (which I'd assume s/he is since s/he is applying to med school right now... but that's not always the case), then I'd assume two drinks could put you at an illegal BAC and lead to a DWI charge. But then, I'd also assume that other charges for being < 21 would have been given.

In any case, SDN can't help you here, OP. Get a lawyer and don't do it again.
 
softmed said:
2 beers is considered sober. Maybe tired drivers should be charged with DWI. And drivers talking on their cell phones. And drivers listening to the radio. All of these are distractions that lead to more deaths than 2 beers.
Click to expand...

ksmi117 said:
I think besides the BAC, one crucial thing we are missing is the OP's age. If the OP isn't 21 yet (which I'd assume s/he is since s/he is applying to med school right now... but that's not always the case), then I'd assume two drinks could put you at an illegal BAC and lead to a DWI charge. But then, I'd also assume that other charges for being < 21 would have been given.

In any case, SDN can't help you here, OP. Get a lawyer and don't do it again.
Click to expand...

Notice the OP never said 2 beers, they said, "about 2 drinks." Two beers and over .08, probably not, though probably some people could be. Two long islands? I could see that.

But again, in Texas, it appears to me that the BAC isn't the end-all be-all. Whether or not that's fair... :shrug:
 
kia ora said:
not everyone who crashes his car gets arrested for DUI/DWI, obviously. there is obviously more to the OP's story than what s/he has shared here. a car crash will attract the attention of a police officer, to be sure. but then when the officer investigates, it is quickly apparent to him whether the driver has been drinking (officers receive a lot of training wrt such things). among the signs are: the smell of alcohol on the driver, bloodshot eyes, nystagmus, impaired coordination. the officer may then ask the driver to perform field sobriety tests (note: if these are done after a car crash, any half-decent defense attorney can make complete hay of the results). if the driver is injured as a result of the crash, there often will be a blood draw done at the hospital and the level of impairment can be determined). and, of course, there's the BAC test in the field.

I don't know the specifics of TX law in this area, but in other states drivers can be convicted with a BAC below 0.8 (or whatever the legal limit is in the particular jurisdiction) based on bad driving/physical impairment (the key phrase in the law generally is "affected by" drugs or alcohol...and of course with drugs the BAC will be 0.0). also, drivers sometimes refuse to take the BAC and ultimately can be convicted of DUI without that (again "affected by" comes into play; also, the refusal to take the BAC test is circumstantial evidence of impairment).

finally, if the driver is under 21 y.o., a much lower BAC (0.2 some places) is enough to convict of DUI
Click to expand...

oops! zeroes are important - above should read 0.08 and 0.02. you're dead at 0.8!
 
GoSpursGo said:
Notice the OP never said 2 beers, they said, "about 2 drinks." Two beers and over .08, probably not, though probably some people could be. Two long islands? I could see that.

But again, in Texas, it appears to me that the BAC isn't the end-all be-all. Whether or not that's fair... :shrug:
Click to expand...

That's true. The OP also said "about" two drinks. I'm not sure how you can drink 2 drinks but be unsure how many you drank. When you drink alcohol you really have to be responsible and keep track before you go driving. One night I drank three beers and I waited like 3 hours before I drove anywhere because I was so afraid of getting a DWI/DUI.
 
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