Felony Drunk Driving

In addition to the felony charge of a 3rd offense, Michigan's drunk driving law makes it a felony to be involved in an accident causing death or "serious impairment" of another while intoxicated, impaired, or with the presence of any amount of a controlled substance.

The drunk driving statute makes it a 15 year felony for causing the death of a person, and it is a 20 year felony for causing the death of a police officer, firefighter or other emergency response personnel.

It is a five year felony for causing "serious impairment" of a body function of another person.

Interestingly, under the new revisions to the drunk driving laws in September 2004, impaired driving is no longer strictly defined by a certain blood alcohol measurement. Similarly, the "any amount of a controlled substance" does not, on its face, require a certain amount of controlled substance to be present. Under circumstances where someone is injured or killed, both of these provisions are questionable, since the level of impairment and relationship of a controlled substance's presence might be completely unrelated to the cause of the accident. As an example, a person might have had a single alcoholic beverage or smoked marijuana days prior to an accident caused by the other driver running a red light. The other driver having died in the accident, an investigation reveals a small presence of either alcohol or a controlled substance. Without any doubt that the accident was completely unavoidable and caused by the decedent, the surviving driver might still be charged with an extremely serious felony.

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