Is an Injury or an Accident Probable Cause for an Officer to Investigate Driving Under the Influence?

In order to pull you over and investigate a potential incident of driving under the influence, a police officer must have probable cause that you have violated the law or are in the process of violating the law. Probable cause refers to reliable information existing to support a reasonable belief that someone has committed a crime. It often doesn’t take much for a police officer to show a probable cause for a DUI. You should certainly be interested in your rights if you have recently been arrested for a DUI, because a police officer who has crossed the line may mean that your charges are thrown out. This is only the case, though, if the police officer violated your rights. In order to pull you over, the officer must have probable cause.

For example, if they observed any kind of impaired driving like driving erratically, another traffic violation or swerving across multiple lanes, this can be probable cause for the officer to pull you over.

Any traffic violation can count as probable cause. One of the most common questions you might have is whether or not an injury or an accident could count as probable cause. If there is evidence that you caused some form of injury to others or to yourself, this could be enough to support probable cause for an arrest.

If the police officer, however, did pull you over without any probable cause, you can fight this by hiring an Erie, Pennsylvania DUI defense attorney. Later in your case, you can bring forward a motion to suppress and your entire case could be thrown out.

Usually you need evidence to help back this up, however, and you need to hire an attorney who is experienced with fighting DUI charges in order to protect yourself. Do not hesitate to reach out to an experienced attorney to get your questions answered.