Drunk Driving DUI Law

A new statute that boosts penalties for drunken drivers will fix a “gaping loophole” in Oklahoma law and make roads safer for children, authorities said Thursday.

Senate Bill 1138 allows prosecutors to file felony child-endangerment charges against intoxicated motorists who have children in their vehicles.

Police, prosecutors and the local branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving lauded the bill during a mid-afternoon news conference at the 41st Street Plaza on Riverside Drive. Efforts to bolster the Oklahoma alcohol-related laws were made for years.

The measure also adds penalties for parents who let their children ride with drunken drivers and allows minors to be taken into protective custody when a parent is arrested for drunken driving.

Plans to cope with the influx have been made, and emergency shelters will put a priority on returning children to other family members before sending them to the Department of Human Services, he said.

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The funds used to treat repeat offenders for driving under the influence in Kansas have been cut by 70% by. Last the past fiscal year the state spent approximately $1.2 million to treat drivers convicted of their fourth Kansas DUI.

The decision to cut the funds comes after the passage of a new law requiring those with a third DUI conviction, rather than the fourth, to enter an alcohol treatment program. That is expected to add as many as 200 people to the rolls of those under treatment. Participants in the program may be required to pay some of the expenses. State lawmakers and officials hope local resources can fill in the gaps.

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Arkansas linebacker Khiry Battle has been dismissed from the team after a weekend arrest on a charge of driving under the influence.

Coach Bobby Petrino announced Battle’s dismissal Monday, saying only that he’d violated team rules.

The 20-year-old Battle was arrested early Sunday on a charge of misdemeanor DUI. Police say Battle failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breath alcohol test, leading to a charge of violating the state’s implied consent law.

On May 6, Battle was arrested after an incident in which a background check revealed he had an arrest warrant for failure to appear for a careless driving ticket.

Battle played in 10 games last season as a freshman and made five tackles.

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A California state senator wants drunken boaters to lose their license to drive their automobiles.

Sen. John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes, introduced SB 154, which would reinstate the suspension of California driver’s license for individuals convicted of boating under the influence.

“Havasu spent eight years in DUI enforcement, making over 1,000 arrests. I have witnessed how the bad choices made under the influence of alcohol have created countless tragedies. My legislation reflects the seriousness of BUI offenses, protecting the safety of travelers on California’s streets, highways and waterways,” Benoit said in a press release.

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The DUI Law in Tennessee will change soon.

Starting July 1, 2009, law enforcement officers will be required to conduct blood alcohol level tests in suspected DUI accidents in which someone other than the suspected impaired driver is seriously hurt or killed. Officers will have to have probable cause to believe a driver was operating a vehicle under the influence.

Dell Russell, Lead Volunteer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is all for it. “I think when they have the opportunity and they have to, I think the conviction rate will go up,” said Russell.

Under this new law, if suspected drunk drivers refuse to take the test, they could lose their license for a year, in addition to other charges they would face.

The new law only applies to accidents in which someone other than the driver is hurt. If a driver is stopped on suspicion of DUI or is the only person involved in a crash, he or she will still have the right to refuse a breathalyzer test.

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The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists recently issued its 2008 rankings of DUI arrests by community for towns in Illinois outside of Chicago. With 651 DUI arrests in 2008, Naperville came in second only to Rockford, which had 785.

“The 4th of July weekend is a little different for us because we also have one of our major events — Ribfest — that weekend,” Waitkus said. “But our DUI enforcement that weekend isn’t much different. It just is an enhancement to what we’re doing the rest of the year, and not a major change.”

Other local police departments employ varying strategies for the holiday weekend. Wheaton Police Chief Mark Field said the city receives grant money from IDOT to hire additional officers to help provide extra patrols — known as “saturation patrols” — on major roadways, particularly near problem intersections like Naperville and Butterfield Roads.

“We try to focus on those areas where we know there are DUI problems but also where the most accidents occur,” Field said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken instead of checkpoints, and that’s been more successful for us.”

Glen Ellyn Police Chief Phil Norton said the holiday weekend means that his department has all hands on deck. With such daylong activities as a parade, and fireworks at Lake Ellyn, every member of the force works the 4th of July, he said.

“Earlier in the evening, we’re typically responding to numerous calls of fireworks, parties and loud noise and things like that,” Norton said. “Once things settle down, because we have so many people on duty, some of our officers turn their concentration toward DUIs.”

Oakbrook Terrace has one of the smaller police forces in DuPage County but has long segments of several of the county’s busiest thoroughfares, including Roosevelt Road, Butterfield Road, 22nd Street and Illinois Highway 83. Police Chief Mark Collins said his department made four DUI arrests in one night on a recent Friday.

“We’re going to be out there like we normally do every weekend,” Collins said. “We’re definitely going to add additional people on the 4th. We always do.”

With the official start of summer here and the road-clogging 4th of July holiday approaching, local police departments are redoubling their efforts to pull impaired drivers off the roads.

“We have more people that are injured and killed as a result of vehicle crashes,” said Naperville Police Cmdr. Gregg Waitkus. “We’re not saying that they’re all DUI-related, but it’s a real safety issue for us.”

The number of alcohol-related fatalities declined slightly statewide in 2008, with 1,043 fatalities reported, of which 35.5 percent resulted from a crash where at least one driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.01 or greater, the Illinois Department of Transportation said. That compares with just more than 36 percent in 2007. The legal threshold in Illinois is 0.08.

“We have a reputation for being a town that makes a lot of Illinois DUI arrests,” Waitkus said. “We’re proud of that reputation. We really instill in our officers that DUI enforcement is a priority for our department.”

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Davis County residents who drink and drive might face more than just fines and jail time.

Those with two or more convictions could see their mug shots and blood-alcohol levels posted on an online “DUI offender registry.”

At least that’s what the coalition Davis Helps is considering.

With the rising trend in alcohol-related crashes and more than 1,700 arrests in the county last year, this database would create “a social stigma against Davis County residents who repeatedly drink and drive,” according to a statement from the anti-drunken-driving organization.

The online database is still a preliminary concept. “We haven’t decided where this is going to go,” said Davis Helps prevention coordinator Brandon Hatch. The group’s primary focus, he said, is a campaign to be unveiled Thursday to help people recognize drunken driving and encourage them to immediately report it to 911.

As far as a registry goes, he said, Davis Helps is still studying how effective such registries have been in three other states: Arizona, New Mexico and North Carolina.

According to University of Utah criminal law professor Daniel Medwed, “Registries and shaming punishments are becoming increasingly popular across the nation, but it’s unclear whether or not they have the deterring effect.”

Medwed also raised concerns that stigmatizing DUI offenders could only marginalize them more and feed into the drinking and driving problem.

Though the other states have reported success in using the registries to deter drunk driving — Arizona even had a billboard campaign with mug shots — Hatch said Davis Helps wants to study the data.

There also are other questions to posting that information online, acknowledges Hatch. “Is someone who has multiple convictions of DUI … something we want to expose or put on the same level as a sex offender?”

Salt Lake City civil-rights attorney Brian Barnard doesn’t think registries of child molesters and drunken drivers accomplish the same goals.

There’s an argument, albeit questionable, Barnard said, that a sex-offender list can alert a neighbor into knowing someone shouldn’t be left alone with an individual — “that makes sense, maybe. But is there a similar benefit in publicly telling everyone so-and-so has a DUI?”

As with other crimes, DUI charges and convictions are public records, but Barnard said there could be constitutional challenges to a DUI registry.

Legality aside, Barnard questions whether an online database is the best way of preventing drunken driving, something that already is considered socially unacceptable.

Publicly shaming people doesn’t address the underlying problems they need to resolve to stop drinking and driving, he said.

And one recurring theme is the difference between what people know and do, said Susannah Burt, program manager for the state Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

“People are aware that it’s not OK to drink and drive, but they’re still doing it anyway.”

Burt’s office disseminated the grants that helped create Davis Helps and 12 other organizations across the state. Those organizations, depending on their individual community needs, can either address alcohol-related crashes or prescription-drug deaths.

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Jacksonville police arrested Ryan Michael Simmons and Joshua Daniel McKinnon a week apart last year on misdemeanor drunken-driving charges.

Both men refused to submit to a breath test to measure their blood-alcohol content.

In both cases, police got a judge to issue a warrant authorizing them to forcibly draw blood. Both men sought to suppress the results from being used against them in court.

There the similarities end.

The judge in the Simmons case ruled in December that forcing him to give blood violated Florida statutes. He suppressed the blood test results. Prosecutors appealed.

The judge in the McKinnon case approved the forced blood draw in February, citing a 2003 Brevard County case. McKinnon, 21, then pleaded no contest and was sentenced to six months of probation and 50 hours of community service.

A third Duval County judge backed the police in a similar case.

Now, Circuit Judge David Gooding has been assigned to settle the issue. He hasn’t scheduled a hearing. And whatever decision he makes likely will be appealed to the next level.

“There are certainly arguments on both sides,” said Simmons’ attorney, Scott Mitchell. “Honestly, it’s a close call.”

Mitchell argues that forcibly drawing blood from Simmons, 24, violated Florida laws governing search warrants.

They say warrants can be used to obtain evidence to prove a felony but not misdemeanors, Mitchell argued in court.

They also say warrants are permissible to obtain property used to commit any crime, felony or misdemeanor. But Mitchell argued a driver’s car and the alcohol consumed are the property used to commit the crime, not the driver’s blood.

Mitchell also argued Florida’s implied consent law allows motorists to refuse breath tests and face an automatic driver’s license suspension. The same law allows forcible blood draws in cases with serious injuries or death but doesn’t mention routine drunken-driving cases.
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Marcus Vick, brother of suspended Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, will return to court over allegations he violated conditions of his drunken-driving sentence.

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5 on whether to revoke Vick’s suspended sentence, which could land him in jail, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

He is accused of not complying with provisions of an alcohol safety and awareness program. Vick pleaded guilty in October to driving drunk, eluding a police officer and driving on the wrong side of the road.

A judge suspended a one-year jail sentence, fined Vick $530 and took away his driver’s license for a year. Marcus Vick was released by the Miami Dolphins in 2007.

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One driver was ticketed for driving under the influence at DUI checklanes in operation following the Smoky Hill River Festival’s Festival Jam Thursday night, and five additional CA DUI arrests were made by patrol officers.
Between 10 and 11:30 p.m. Thursday at Front and Crawford streets, 93 cars entered the checklanes and several drivers were evaluated, said Capt. Mike Sweeney of the Salina Police Department. No one was cited for DUI, but two drivers were ticketed for having open containers of alcohol in their vehicles.
Between midnight and 2:10 a.m. Friday, 90 cars entered a checklane at Ninth and Crawford streets, Sweeney said. One DUI arrest was made, and two people were cited for open container.
Sweeney said police received few reports of problems at the jam in Oakdale Park. He said one 53-year-old woman was arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer and trespass after she hit a policeman on the chest and refused to leave the festival grounds when asked.

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