San Diego Boating & DUI

Boating under the influence, BUI in San Diego is considered to be just as serious an offense as drunk driving. You can be pulled over and arrested for BUI on any San Diego county lake, river or waterway, including San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The legal limit for your Blood Alcohol Content BAC is the same for DUI which is 0.08%. The penalties for BUI are similar to drunk driving penalties and include fines, compulsory attendance at DUI/BUI programs, jail time and loss of driving privileges. BUI charges can also be used as prior convictions for any future DUI convictions that you may get, meaning an increase in fines and enhanced penalties.

Drunk boating cases can sometimes be harder for the prosecution to prove when there is more than one person on the boat because they must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person charged with operating the boat with a BAC of 0.08% or higher was actually operating it. It is very easy to walk away from the driving position in a boat and swap places with somebody else on the boat, and it is normal for several people on a boat to take turns at the controls. A competent San Diego DUI lawyer may, for instance, be able to get your BUI charge reduced to serving as a crew member while under the influence.