Reader’s Question:

When my son was arrested for DUI in Washington, DC, I feel like it was assumptive to say that he was really drunk driving just because according to the police report, it was so apparent that he had a slurred speech. Isn’t it that consuming alcohol is not the only thing that could cause a slurred speech?

Summer

Washington, DC

Yes, Summer, consuming alcohol is actually not the only thing that causes a person to have a slurred speech. It is rare but too interesting not to mention that a condition called Ataxic dysarthria, which is a neurological disorder, could also cause a person to sound drunk.

Another thing is that, the most common, and very likely to lead a police officer to make an unfair assumption on drunk driving because of having a slurred speech, is stress. Stress could have a host of different effects on speech such as stuttering, a higher pitch and slurring. And being pulled over, as we all know is always a stressful experience. Your son was probably extremely preoccupied with saying the right thing when he was asked to pull over because of DUI in Washington, DC. When he was talking to the police officer, he probably can’t seem to form a normal English sentence, much less speak eloquently because he was nervous. None of this is to say that it can never be possible to determine how drunk a person is from their speech, or to distinguish between a stressed-out person and a drunk person.

Tags: drunk driving laws, DUI, DUI advice, DUI arrest, DUI lawyer