A 19 year-old teen from Manayunk, Philadelphia flipped over his SUV after ramming onto a parked car early Saturday Morning. The driver was immediately arrested and is now facing DUI charges.
According to Steve Beck of NBC Philadelphia, the investigators on the scene said the accident happened around 1:30 in the morning. The 19 year-old driver was on Main Street near Shurs Lane when his SUV hit a parked car and the SUV flipped over on its side.
The same source reported that there were no other injuries except for minor ones suffered by the driver. He is expected to make a full recovery.
A separate report by Michael Tanenbaum over at PhillyVoice confirmed that Philadelphia police arrested the teen SUV driver and charged him with driving under the influence. The driver's name has not been released as of the moment.
The determining factor for a charge of driving under the influence (DUI) is the blood alcohol content (BAC) of the driver. As confirmed by DMV, the legal limit BAC for drunk driving was lowered from .10% to .08%. This was due Act 24, which was signed in to law on September 30, 2003.
The DMV site further states that Act 24 defines three tiers of DUI from .08% to .099% as the the lowest, .10% to .159% as high and .16% or more as the highest. Penalties for these tiers range from probation and fines for the lower tiers and jail time for the higher tiers. Offenders who refuse to submit to a breath exam may be penalized with additional sanctions.
In conjunction with Act 24, the state of Pennsylvania has enacted tougher laws to combat underage drinking. Anyone below 21 years-old caught drinking but not driving will be slapped with a $500 fine and a license suspension. Those caught drinking and driving, if convicted, could face stiffer charges under the 'Zero Tolerance Law'.
Under this law the 19 year-old driver, if convicted, will have a one year suspension on his license. He is also slated to face a fine of $500 to $5000 and jail time of 2 days to 6 months.
