CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Charleston Police Division (CPD) works across the clock to maintain folks within the metropolis secure.
That features preserving a watch out for impaired drivers, a specialty of Officer Zach Azari. He turned concerned with DUI enforcement early on in his profession and now works on CPD’s visitors unit doing DUI enforcement each shift.
“There’s at all times folks driving and there’s at all times folks consuming within the Metropolis of Charleston each single night time,” he stated.
In 2021, Officer Azari made 118 DUI arrests touchdown him two state awards. However he says he doesn’t care concerning the numbers.
“It’s extra about me making an impression as a result of I consider these as folks’s lives that I saved.”
In accordance with the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, half of all deadly crashes in S.C. final yr concerned an impaired driver.
A latest report launched by the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, South Carolina is the 10th highest state for impaired driving deaths. Additionally, there was a 14% improve in alcohol-related deaths from 2019 to 2020.
“I’d say each single night time you possibly can discover an impaired driver,” stated Officer Azari.
The method of creating a DUI arrest is a prolonged one which varies from driver to driver. There are a number of issues officers search for earlier than pulling a automotive over together with velocity, driving habits, and extra.
“The principle one is velocity. Velocity is what kills. You may consider your DUI driver as going actually sluggish, however 90% of the time, I’d say, they’re going very, very, very quick.”
As soon as a automotive is pulled, driver contact is admittedly what makes the willpower if that driver is impaired. Azari says he appears to be like for bodily indicators of impairedness akin to glassy or watery eyes, slurred speech, turning into simply distracted, and extra. He additionally might discover a scent of alcohol or medication.
The subsequent steps might embody Standardized Area Sobriety Checks (SFSTs), or different actions to find out if an arrest must be made.
Azari says DUIs are fully avoidable.
“That individual made that selection to do this…they usually don’t have to do this. They’ll take an uber. It’s lots cheaper than getting a DUI.”
South Carolina legislation prohibits driving a motorcar with a BAC of 0.08% or increased. For extra info on legal guidelines regarding DUI, click here.
