I just put in my renewal application and had to list a DUI I got last year. No conviction yet just the charge and awaiting the court date.
It is my second DUI my first being 7/8 years ago.
Can’t really find the outcome for what happens or if and how I will get my license renewed.
I’m only entry level engine dept as I got my initial credentials and took time away from sailing to be with family.
Any advice? Or am I done sailing?
First, call MOPS, the Merchant Officer’s Protective Syndicate, and ask them if they can give you the name of a good “USCG license defense” lawyer, preferably in your state.
The lawyers MOPS uses have experience with this kind of thing. They’ll be able to give you good advice.
Second, you need a very good DUI defense lawyer to do whatever is possible to prevent your conviction. He probably won’t know the USCGs definition of “conviction” (which includes just about any kind of plea deal). Make sure that he learns it.
If you go to trial, you only need to win over one juror that’s a drinker and won’t vote for conviction.
You are in a bad situation, but there is hope.
Tugsailor - good to see you giving advise to this young lad.
Easier said then done Maybe if the evidence is a field sobriety test, much harder if it’s from a properly calibrated test of BAC.
I’m Canadian not familiar with US Law.
As a former Union rep. I’ve dealt with this kind of thing a few times.
Yes its a problem.
The US has a much tougher policy re drug and alcohol which I’m not familiar with.
The DUI was hopefully not while you were working. Which would be another (much worse)can of worms.
You declared it. Not declaring would be a big problem.
Are you currently employed as an engine room rating, Ie unlicensed position?
Does your employer have a drug and alcohol policy?
Two DUI? Are you just an idiot? or
You have done this before, most people learn from their mistakes. You know your job requires you to be clean and sober. You know you are subject to random testing.
Do you have a problem?
If you have a problem? If you figure out you have a problem? If you are willing to deal with your problem? There may be a way out of it.
If you acknowledge you have a problem and are willing to accept help, ie treatment.
There may be a way out of this.
To get out of this you would have to talk to union, employer and possible CG.
Your employer or Union will hopefully be able to refer you to a recognised rehab.
Which you would have to complete and take seriously.
You would probably have to agree to be subject to regular testing. For a significant time period.
It’s up to you to help yourself.
If you don’t figure it out for yourself. Nobody will be able to help you.
Good luck hopefully you will be able to work this out.
The first step is acknowledging you might have a problem.
The second step is asking for help.
Super helpful response.
He’s not wrong though… you know when you get your MMC that getting a DUI or a drug charge is going to have a bad outcome for your ability to work. I’m no teetotaler, but damn, how hard is it to call an Uber and know you’re getting home without seeing a jail or ER?
Don’t worry so much about your credential, You’re toast in that dept.
Worry about finding some help. You have a problem. You are going to kill someone’s innocent children. Get help dude.
We don’t know whether he has a “drinking problem “ or not.
Big difference between having two beers and being .09 vs. being hammered after a whole bottle of scotch. and blowing 2.5.
20 years ago .10 was legal in most states, and many millions of us drove just fine for many years at .099.
The drunk driving problem has always been the problem drinkers who routinely drive when they are double or triple the legal limit. There are still a lot of those guys.
Changing it from .10 to .08 was more of a political lobbying thing, than a scientific.
The level of driving impairment at .10 is similar to simply being tired after a long day.
What’s next, .04? Some European countries are at .04. Why stop there? Why not make it 0.0? How low of a limit is enough?
There is too much that we don’t know about this guy and his DUIs before passing judgment on him.
If he blew 2.5, I hope he does six months in jail.
If he blew .09, then I hope he gets off.
If he lives in a rural area, as many of us do, he didn’t have the option of taking Uber or a taxi, or walking.
The only “safe from the cops” thing to do these days is live in a city where driving isn’t necessary, ride a horse, drive a dogsled, or be a non-drinker.
There is a big difference between being drunk driving home from a party in his car, and being drunk in the engine room.
He’s just an effin’ Oiler! How perfect does an oiler need to be? If he drinks on a ship then that is a problem, but then Chief must be drinking onboard too, and probably the Captain. That is the real problem, not this Oiler.
How many of us know Captains who are problem drinkers?
If we started eliminating all the mariners who have ever driven a car at above .08 two times, then there would not be many mariners left. Not many judges and politicians either.
Ummm, 20 years ago was when the last state dropped to .08.
The fact that he risks it at all with this career kinda gives us a hint
He posts a question, people take time out to give good advise and he does not even acknowledge. - let alone a ‘thanks’. Strange.
You must not have a wife and kids out on the road…and if you do you don’t care enough.
All you guys are good at math. Statistically speaking only one in a million who are driving under the influence actually get pulled over. How many times do you have to drive under the influence before getting pulled over? I heard this from a substance abuse counselor.
The OP may or may not have a drinking problem. But after the first conviction should have learned his livelihood was at risk and been more careful. On the other hand could just be bad luck. A friend of mine went 1 mile from my house to buy a pound of butter during a pig roast and got a DUI with a .12 BAC. I have been paranoid about driving after drinking for many years once I reasoned there were 100’s of thousands of dollars in income being risked not to mention the legal costs. If one knows this but continues to drink and drive it is obvious there is an addiction issue.
Yup, that’s my reasoning as well, especially after one of my classmates within a week of graduation wiped any chance of getting to make use of his license in the apprentice pilot program he’d been accepted to. That and I was a medic with Galveston EMS to help pay my way at TMA. Saw the graphic results of drinking and driving all too many times.
Then Justin Timberlake is incredibly unfortunate.
It has been 0.04 for flying for ages, FYI.
Flying? That’s scary.
Only feels like ages if you were born after 1985.