DUI charges affect people in all walks of life, from business people to students to individuals in elected offices. One such affected individual was the Mayor of Greenwood, Welborn Adams, who was arrested after a breathalyzer test established that he had been driving with a 0.09 blood alcohol content. According to South Carolina law, driving with a blood alcohol content over 0.08 is illegal and can be a basis for a DUI arrest.
Adams, 49, was driving at about 2:30 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning. He was on the way home a birthday party for his wife, which took place in the Federal Building’s Art Center off Main Street in Uptown. The South Carolina Highway Patrol stopped him at a checkpoint just yards away from his Cambridge Avenue home, and an officer detected a strong odor of alcohol emanating from him. Because of that, the officer conducted a field sobriety test.
That test indicated that Adams was impaired, so the officer took him to the Greenwood County Detention Center. The breathalyzer test was administered there and showed the 0.09 BAC level. Based on this, Adams was booked and then released, per a personal recognizance bond.
In a statement given by phone midday Saturday, Adams expressed the view that he didn’t feel that he had been impaired when driving. He said that he had felt fine and had simply been driving his wife home after the birthday party. However, he was still waiting for the results of the breathalyzer test to be communicated.
This incident illustrates how a person can feel fully capable of driving, and yet have a high enough BAC to be legally charged with a DUI. Because of this, South Carolina residents should err on the side of safety and not drive if they’ve been drinking at all.
Source: Index-Journal, “Greenwood Mayor Welborn Adams faces DUI charge, registers .09 BAC,” Richard Whiting, Sep. 19, 2015