AZ DUI News

The Governor's Office of Highway Safety released the number of arrests for drunk driving in Arizona during the holidays. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, 3534 arrests for suspicion of driving under the influence were made statewide.

The East Valley Task Force, covering Phoenix, made the most arrests with 1,862. The Southern Arizona DUI Task Forced netted 397 DUI arrests and the West Valley DUI Task Force made 365 arrests. The task forces are comprised of local, county and state law enforcement agencies. Of those arrested, 10% had a prior drinking and driving offense on their driving record. Nearly 25% had a blood alcohol content in excess of .15%, which is considered an Extreme DUI in Arizona.

The total number of Arizona DUI arrests was down from 2009 when 4,693 motorists were charged with suspicion of drunk driving during the same time frame.

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An Arizona man was arrested for trying to steal a flashing red light from a stop sign while a police car was parked nearby.

Nineteen year old Christopher McCollum was driving in Cornville when he stopped around 1:45 early Sunday morning, exited his Ford truck and started shaking a sign post. Yavapai County Sheriff's deputies happened to be parked 30 feet away and they shined a spotlight on McCollum. The deputies heard McCollum, who was on his cell phone, tell the person he was talking to that he was likely to be going to jail for "stealing a stop sign in front of the cops."

McCollum later explained to the deputies that he had been drinking and was trying to get the flashing light from the sign. His blood alcohol content measured 0.11%.

McCollum was charged with driving under the influence in Arizona, underage drinking and suspicion of theft. He was booked at the Camp Verde Detention Center and held on $1500 bond. He also must post a $15,000 bond from a prior, unrelated case.

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A special Arizona DUI task force sought suspected drunk drivers over the weekend with targeted patrols and checkpoints. Officers from the Tempe, Chandler, Mesa and Scottsdale police departments conducted 405 traffic stops over two nights between 8:00 pm and 4:00 am. A total of 67 motorists were charged with suspicion of misdemeanor DUI in Arizona and another was arrested for aggravated DUI.

The average blood alcohol content of those arrested was .145%. The legal threshold for intoxication in Arizona is .08%.

The penalties for driving under the influence in Arizona can include court costs, fines, mandatory jail sentence, loss of driver's license, mandatory installation of an ignition interlock device and vehicle impoundment. During 2008, there were 937 traffic deaths in Arizona, and about 28% involved alcohol.

The combined task force will be conducting additional patrols this coming Friday.

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Around 6:30 Thursday morning, the driver of a Mercedes Benz, allegedly traveling at a high rate of speed, lost control, went into the center median of Interstate 10, re-entered the highway and collided with a semi-tractor trailer truck. The Mercedes continued about a quarter mile before coming to a stop. The truck ended up jack-knifed in the median.

The Mercedes driver suffered serious injuries and a female passenger was slightly injured. She initially told police that she had been kidnapped, though she later recanted her story. Both the driver and passenger were transported to a local hospital.

A Department of Public Safety spokesperson said that the driver will be charged with driving under the influence in Arizona, endangerment and criminal damage. Interstate 10 was re-opened around 10:15 am.

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Police in Prescott Arizona arrested a woman August 1 on charges of Super Extreme DUI. That level of offense is levied when the suspect has a blood alcohol content in excess of .20%.

Police were alerted to an erratic driver around 3:40 Sunday afternoon on State Route 89. Responding officers found that 54-year old Dana Lynn Anderson had driven about 50 feet off the highway and collided with a traffic sign. Her silver Mazda suffered extensive front end damage and three of the four support legs for the sign had been unearthed. Anderson failed a series of field sobriety and seemed dazed and confused. She was taken to the Prescott Police Department, where breath tests showed she had a BAC of .226% and .235%, about three times the legal limit for intoxication. Anderson was then processed for DUI in Arizona at the Yavapai County Jail.

Under Arizona DUI law, driving under the influence or DUI is charged when the motorist has BAC of .08% or higher, Extreme DUI with a BAC greater than .15% and Super Extreme DUI with a BAC above .20%. Anderson was charged with all three, as well as felony endangerment and felony criminal damage.

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A Department of Public Safety patrol car was struck by a drunk driver heading the wrong way on a major highway. Around 2:00 Wednesday morning Officer James Waltermire noticed headlights coming toward him on Loop 101 in Glendale. He activated his emergency lights and siren and began a zigzagging motion to get cars behind him to stop or slow down. The on-coming Ford pick-up truck hit the driver's side of the DPS car, and despite causing extensive damage to both vehicles, continued driving for about 100 yards before coming to a stop. The truck even lost a tire during the wreck, which bounced into a Suburban. No one was injured in any of the involved vehicles.

The driver of the pick-up jumped out of his wrecked vehicle and fled on foot. Michael Chicharello was apprehended shortly after and officers initiated a drunk driving investigation. A preliminary breath test showed that Chicharello had a blood alcohol content of 0.252%, more than three times the legal limit for intoxication in Arizona.

Chicharello, 31, was booked for driving under the influence in Arizona, aggravated assault, endangerment, criminal damage and leaving the scene of an accident. Officer Waltermire, a five year veteran with the DPS, was roundly praised by the department spokesperson, saying his actions probably saved someone's life.

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A Yavapai County Arizona woman is facing serious charges following an auto accident three months ago. The county sheriff's department says that the results of a toxicology test show that Jessica Wayas had significant presence of Methamphetamines/Amphetamines in her blood at the time of the incident.

On March 13, Wayas was driving her 1997 Ford Mustang when she hit a 1980 Chevy pick-up truck head-on. Wayas' 6-year old son and 5-year old daughter were in the car and were injured from not being restrained. Wayas was treated for injuries to her upper body and leg. The 71-year old driver of the pick-up truck was treated for severe chest pain. He had recently undergone heart surgery and has been on medication and in therapy since the accident.

An investigation into the accident showed that Wayas was at fault and had crossed the center line before colliding with the pick-up truck. When the Yavapai County Sheriff's Department received the results of the blood test from the Department of Public Safety, they filed charges of driving under the influence in Arizona, child abuse, aggravated assault and felony criminal damage. Wayas, 29, is being held on $15,000 bond.

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Authorities in Maricopa County and Phoenix armed with more than 20,000 warrants are aggressively seeking certain motorists in the court system for driving under the influence in Arizona. The warrants are for those who have been arrested for Arizona DUI and failed to complete actions associated with the crime, like miss a court appearance before a judge or not pay court ordered fines.

The Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Maricopa County Adult Probation have teamed up to serve the warrants, and a command center has been set up on the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Forty officers and authorities are involved with the operation. The main focus is the Memorial Day holiday, though the effort will go on for many weeks. Typically an average of 20 arrests on DUI related warrants are made each week, though, during the crackdown, 50 arrests have been made already this week and more than 100 arrests are hoped for through Monday.

The program has been funded with a grant from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety.

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The mother of Phoenix Suns basketball player Amare Stoudemire was arrested last Saturday after a traffic infraction in Scottsdale. Carrie Mae Stoudemire was stopped around 3:30 pm for straddling two lanes and speeding. According to the police report, her eyes were watery and glassy. The officers then noticed that she was in violation of Arizona DUI law for not having an ignition interlock device in her vehicle. Stoudemire's driver's license indicates that she must have this device in her vehicle until October 30 of this year because of an Arizona DUI conviction.

Stoudemire claimed the SUV she was driving was a rental vehicle and she was unaware that the ignition interlock was required in all vehicles she operates. She said that she was driving to an alcohol education class, another condition of her sentence. After Stoudemire refused to perform field sobriety tests, she was arrested and placed in a squad car.

Amare arrived on the scene in a Bentley and Carrie started yelling for her son, asking him to get a lawyer. Police recognized the Suns player and asked him to leave because his presence was causing his mother to "act out". Amare complied.

Carrie Mae Stoudemire, 54, was booked at the Scottsdale jail for speeding, a lane violation and operating a vehicle without a mandated ignition interlock. She has a history of incidents with the law, including drunk driving, drug possession and prostitution. She was sentenced to three years in prison in 2006 for aggravated DUI in Arizona involving an accident.

Task forces across the state made 171 arrests for driving under the influence in Arizona during Cinco de Mayo celebrations. The statistics were released by the governor's office on Thursday, and the numbers show that 50 of those arrests were for extreme DUI.

Extreme AZ DUI is charged when a motorist has a blood alcohol content of .15% or higher. The legal limit for intoxication in the state is .08%.

The statewide drunk driving crackdown during Cinco de Mayo included 224 officers conducting sobriety checkpoints and targeted patrols.

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