Archives

The California Highway Patrol today said that so far this year holiday season DUI arrests are down statewide.

Officers have arrested 409 motorists for drunk driving and 11 people have been killed in DUI-related accidents statewide since Wednesday.

Last year at this time, the CHP tallied 13 drunk-driving related fatalities and 977 DUI arrests in the state.

In the Bay Area, CHP officers have arrested 48 drunk drivers, down from last year’s total of 164. There have been no DUI fatalities in the Bay Area since Wednesday; last year, three deaths on Bay Area roads were linked to holiday imbibing.

The CHP’s heightened holiday enforcement ends Sunday.

State officials, in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced a new holiday campaign aimed at reducing incidents of driving under the influence in Florida. The $7 million campaign targets drivers between the ages of 21 and 24, the group most likely to be involved in an alcohol related accident with fatality. Ads will be featured on radio and television, as well as online. In combination with the ad campaign, law enforcement agencies across the state will target areas prone to Florida drunk driving arrests with extra patiols and sobriety checkpoints.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety reports a 10 percent drop in the number of DUI related fatalities in the state over the past ten months. Officials cite better law enforcement and a decrease in driving due to higher gas prices. December, however, statistically has one of the highest rates of DUI arrests, with a reported 4 out of 10 alcohol related accidents with fatality occurring in the last two weeks of the month.

Looking for a Florida DUI Lawyer?

Daughter of Bruton Smith injured in drunk driving crash.

NASCAR Daughter DWIThe 25 year old daughter of billionaire NASCAR racing mogul Bruton Smith has been formally charged with driving while intoxicated in North Carolina and driving with a suspended driver’s license. Anna Smith was involved in an accident on December 10 that left her seriously injured.

The accident occured in Huntersville, NC, near Charlotte, around 5:00 am. Smith’s vehicle was found wrecked in a field, 200 feet from the road, and she had reportedly been thrown 40 feet away. Ms. Smith remains hospitalized at Carolinas Medical Center.

Bruton Smith is the chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

Source: DUI.com

Eat drink and be merry, just don’t get behind the wheel when you do. The likelihood of getting caught seems to be greater now than before because Traffic tickets, Dui arrests bring in money, something a lot of us don’t have or are reluctant to spend and here’s what you might encounter if you make that choice.

California has two basic drunk driving laws, found in vehicle code section 23152, sections (a) and (b):

A. It is a misdemeanor to drive under the influence of alcohol and /or drugs.

B. It is a misdemeanor to drive with .08% or more of alcohol in your blood.

read more…

Editor’s note: This is the final part in a three-part series looking at impaired driving on the Kenai Peninsula.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that driving under the influence is against the law. It’s as well known a fact as is that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. But what happens to those convicted of driving while intoxicated can vary.

Come Jan. 1, a new law passed will ensure one constant for all convicted of driving under the influence in the state of Alaska: ignition interlocks.

“A court may not enforce a municipal ordinance prescribing a penalty for driving while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, inhalant or controlled substance or refusal to submit to a chemical test unless that ordinance imposes ignition interlock device requirements under this title,” the law reads.

“An ignition interlock device analyzes a person’s blood alcohol content,” said Rep. Kevin Meyer in a written statement.

A vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock won’t start unless the driver provides a breath sample below the legal limit, said Babette Miller, owner of Smart Start of Alaska, a company that installs ignition interlock devices statewide. If the breath sample provided is above the legal limit, the car won’t start.

“Individuals learn to separate drinking from driving,” Miller said.

Once the car has started, it then goes into a retest mode where the device has random tests while the vehicle is running, Miller said. If the person fails to pass the retest, the horn sounds until the person shuts down the vehicle or passes the test. This function is to bring attention to the vehicle that something is wrong, Miller said.
read more…

Officers from the 21 police agencies in Alameda County are reminding drivers they will be out in full force this weekend, cracking down on those who drive drunk.

The agencies have made 413 DUI arrests through the “Avoid the 21″ campaign, which started Dec. 12.

The number of arrests is 10 percent lower than last year at the same time in the campaign, and there have been no drunken-driving fatalities. Last year, the county also reported no deaths as a result of drunken drivers.

More checkpoints are set for Alameda, Oakland and Pleasanton this weekend. The Oakland CHP and police who patrol Oakland, Livermore and UC Berkeley will run DUI saturation patrols, said Livermore police Lt. Mike Peretti, “Avoid the 21″ coordinator.

Peretti advises Raiders fans attending Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans to designate a sober driver. A 60-officer team from 15 police agencies will be out in force after the game.

“We’ll be out starting at 3 p.m. to arrest any football fan who fails to drive sober,” Peretti said. “We don’t want to export drunk drivers all over the Bay Area.”

“Avoid the 21″ made 1,114 DUI arrests during last year’s winter holiday crackdown, by far the largest number in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

The three-week enforcement blitz ends New Year’s Day.

Tuesday night’s snowstorm turned out to be perfect Chicago Bears weather for former quarterback Robert Avellini, whose 2007 drunken driving charge was dismissed Wednesday because a former Wheaton police officer was unable to fly in from Florida to testify.

Noting the case had been set for trial seven previous times, DuPage Judge Ronald Sutter dismissed the charge against Avellini, 54, of Roselle.

The dismissed charge was the fourth time that Avellini, a Bears quarterback from 1975 to 1984, had been charged with DUI in DuPage County. He was convicted once and had charges dismissed two other times.

Wheaton city prosecutor Peter Baroni told Sutter that the arresting officer had moved within the last year and was now a Tampa Bay-area police officer. He asked for a continuance because the officer could not fly back Tuesday night as planned, but Sutter denied it.

Richard Kayne, defense attorney, said Avellini will be allowed to remove the device from his vehicle that forced him to breathe into a breath analyzer every 20 minutes in order to drive. That device was ordered by a different judge.

In 2002, Avellini was convicted of drunken driving on Interstate Highway 55 near Burr Ridge, ordered to perform 50 hours of community service and fined $750. He later was acquitted of DUI charges in Wood Dale and Downers Grove.

Avellini was stopped at 12:23 a.m. June 15, 2007, in downtown Wheaton after disobeying a flashing red light, police said. The police report said his eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and he had droopy eyelids, slurred speech, poor balance and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.

Baroni said he would seek to refile the charges.

Come the new year the state of Illinois will undergo big changes to their DUI legal system. The new law for
Illinois DUI MDDP and Driving Permits here.

The Loris Police Department was among eight law enforcement agencies chosen to receive a new police vehicle to use in traffic enforcement.

The department will get a new Dodge Charger police vehicle as part of the Law Enforcement Challenge program, in which more than 160 agencies throughout the state participated in from Dec. 14, 2007 to Sept.

The winning departments were chose during a random drawing on Wednesday, but to be eligible to win a vehicle, police departments had to participate in enforcement activities such as seat belt enforcement, slow down speeders and reduce impaired and aggressive driving.

Other winning departments were Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office; Branchville Police Department; Lee County Sheriff’s Office; Travelers Rest Police Department; Anderson Police Department; Chester Police Department and Summerton Police Department.

“Because these vehicles will be used strictly for traffic enforcement, the communities that these agencies serve are the true winners,” said Mark Keel, director of the state’s public safety department. “High-visibility patrols are instrumental in reducing traffic collisions, which in turn saves lives.”

read more…

The Sparks Police Department will be conducting a joint DUI checkpoint scheduled for the evening of December 20, 2008.

This will be one of the largest joint DUI Checkpoints in the region, with an estimated thirty or more officers participating, according to Sgt. Pat Dyer.

The Sparks police will act with the assistance of the Reno Police Department, Washoe County Sheriff’s Department, Carson City Sheriff’s Department, University Police Department and the Nevada Highway Patrol, Dyer said.

Going to Las Vegas for a holiday vacation?