DUINews
Number of Nevada DUI Fatalities Down in Clark County
Nevada sees one of largest reductions of traffic related deaths in the nation.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released statistics showing that highway deaths dropped 3.9% across the country in 2007. The state of Nevada realized a 13% drop, from 431 to 371, making it sixth best in the nation for reducing overall traffic fatalities. More than half of the drop in total numbers came from Clark County.
The number of fatal accidents involving alcohol also dropped in Nevada; by 8%. Approximately one-third of all highway deaths in Clark County were attributable to drunk driving in the Las Vegas area.
Through the Labor Day weekend, state law enforcement agencies will be conducting a campaign titled ‘Over the Limit, Under Arrest’ targeting Nevada DUI offenses. In addition to law enforcement, public awareness campaigns have helped reduce the incidents of driving under the influence in Nevada. One such effort called ‘Every 15 Minutes’ has been successful in dramatically reducing high school student highway deaths involving drinking and driving in Clark County.
Have you been arrested for DUI in Clark County, NV or Las Vegas?
Reno Man With 7 Priors Dodges 8th!
Police Arrest Man with Seven PriorsMarch 27, 1998
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A Reno man police say has seven drunken driving arrests has dodged No. 8, but still faces a raft of other charges.
Joseph Donald Clichi, 48, was being watched by officers under funding provided by the repeat DUI offender grant.
He left his house for work Friday morning, stopping on the way to pick up a six-pack. By the time police could pull him over, officers say he was pretty well finished with his first beer of the day.
A preliminary breath test put his blood alcohol at 0.05 percent, half the 0.1 percent at which a person is presumed to be under the influence in Nevada.
But he faces charges of driving on a revoked license, possession of an open container, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia. He was being held under $2,570 bail.
Police say he was arrested for DUI twice in the 1970s, three times in the '80s and twice in the 1990s.
Nevada City's Ban
Gold Country Town Bans Boozing in StreetNEVADA CITY (AP) -- As he strolled this historic gold-mining town in a steady downpour, Ike Frazee, a 25-year-old pastry chef with a black beret and a long goatee, bemoaned the ebbing of a hallowed tradition.
"Drinking on the street? Hell, yes! This is the only place I could do it,'' Frazee said. "It added a lot of character to the town.''
Ending a mining-town convention that endured for generations, Nevada City officials recently voted to ban public drinking on the city's downtown streets and sidewalks.
On New Year's Eve, revelers had one of their last chances to roam through the Sierra Nevada foothills town toting open containers of alcoholic beverages before the new law goes into effect Monday.
In reality, the Nevada City Council action -- giving police authority to issue citations and roust people for drinking -- brings the town into conformance with other cities that ban drinking on downtown streets, sidewalks, parking lots and alleys.
But in Nevada City, whose council over the years rejected several attempts to ban drinking in public, this was no casual action.
While some merchants and council members complained that a handful of people on sidewalks nursing bottles of beer and wine were a nuisance to the tourist town, others bemoaned the loss of a drinker's right.
"There is 140 years of tradition in town of drinking on the streets and that should not be thrown away for people who have socially unacceptable behavior,'' protested Tom Coleman, owner of the town's 144-year-old National Hotel.
After the council voted 4-1 to enact the drinking ban, Coleman said the matter should have been put to a citywide vote.
"Basically, the majority is suffering because of a minority,'' Coleman said, "and I don't want to see the erosion of another right.''
But council member Sharon Tobiassen, who pushed for the vote after city workers signed petitions complaining about inebriated people hanging out downtown, said the step was needed to halt a budding "skid row atmosphere."
She said nostalgia for Nevada City's mining days is a poor excuse for allowing open-air drinking downtown.
"When you see people openly drinking and defying all authority, I say, `Let's move into the 21st century,' '' Tobiassen said. "Some years ago, we banned lynching and dueling on the streets, another carryover from the Old West. We no longer need to live in that mode.''
The new law won't affect Nevada City's restaurants and bars, which will continue to serve alcohol. Under state beverage control laws, patrons have never been allowed to take drinks outside such establishments.
But the downtown drinking crackdown is bitter ale for residents such as Dee "Little Zappa'' Myers, 28, who said he's enjoyed his right to trudge through town swigging from a bottle of beer.
"Perhaps there's pressure from community leaders to gentrify the town, "Myers said. "Crusty old folks have been drinking here for years. What do they want us to do now? Drink `near beer' in back rooms?''
Under the new law, permits can be granted to allow open-air drinking during special events, such as the town's Victorian Christmas street festivals or its popular Fourth of July Constitution Day. But the law may be a death knell for the town's era as a drinkers' paradise.
As Nevada City was transformed over the years into a charming mecca of upscale boutiques, eateries and bed-and-breakfast inns, many trendy new businesses replaced old gin joints and hard-boozin' taverns.
"This used to be a working man's town,'' Coleman said. "The loggers, the truck drivers, the guys in Levis and suspenders don't come downtown anymore. If a guy with muddy boots walked into one of these yuppie places today, he'd feel very uncomfortable.''
Nevada City Mayor Harry Stewart said police have received increased complaints in recent months about individuals drinking and loitering downtown. He said he feared adults were providing booze to youths.
And as long as drinking in public was legal, Stewart said, police couldn't intervene until someone became intoxicated or disruptive.
"Nevada City is very strong on tradition, and one of the hardest things is change,'' Stewart said. "But I think people, down deep in their hearts, knew that the time had come.''
Published Wednesday, January 1, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News
Las Vegas and DUI
Vegas Still Known for DUI/DWI Problems.
Las Vegas, NV-Several recent alcohol-related deaths and DUI arrests in the Las Vegas Valley have brought attention to reforming Nevada DUI laws.
In Sin City, last call is never announced, meaning that some drinkers never get a late-night halt to their vice before they hit the road.
An organization called Stop DUI believes that because of Nevada's easygoing attitude toward drinking, the state should have the strictest DUI laws in the United States. Instead Nevada has a blood alcohol content (BAC) limit of 0.10, lower than many states' limit of 0.08.
Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell hopes that these serious accidents will attract more attention to the DUI problem in Nevada, and result in positive reform.
One driver killed six teens on a roadside work crew after she passed out at the wheel. The driver, 21-year-old Jessica Williams, survived and is held on $5 million bail.
Juanita Kim McDonald, 25, crashed into a group of tourists on a sidewalk in front of the Aladdin Hotel. She injured six of them, and one died weeks later due to serious injuries.
Another intoxicated driver, Michael Pickett, 24, killed four innocent bystanders, including a pregnant woman. They were parked at a stoplight when Pickett slammed his truck into their vehicle. He had a BAC of 0.22, more than double that of the legal limit of 0.10.
Several survivors of other drunk-driving accidents are undergoing long-term rehabilitation, their lives put on hold due to the carelessness of drunk drivers.
Despite the long list of accidents and fatalities of late, Bell believes that the numbers look positive. According to the Nevada Highway Patrol and county records, the 11,913 DUI arrests of 1999 were down from 12,196 in 1998. The number seems more significant when considering the state's high population growth.
The Office of Traffic Safety at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (NV DMV) and Public Safety record traffic fatalities. They found that 35.4% of Clark County's vehicle fatalities were from drunk driving in 1999. The county had 69 drunk driving deaths. In 1993 the amount of deaths were less, however the percentage accountable to drunk driving was roughly the same at 38.7%.
Sandy Heverly, head of Stop DUI, would like the Nevada's legal BAC limit to be lowered from 0.10 to 0.08, a level that is common in several states. She would also like a DUI-caused death to be considered as second-degree murder, which requires 25 years to life in prison.
June 23, 2000
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Nevada's New Drug Driving Law (Marijuana Intoxication)
Nevada's Drug Impairment Law Hailed, Criticized.
8/30/2003 09:45 pm
By Martha Bellisle
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Too many drivers high on drugs are causing fatal crashes while avoiding prosecution, say federal officials who are calling for new laws nationwide that would send a driver to prison without proving drugs caused the accident.
The new legislation, to be modeled after statutes recently passed in Nevada and eight other states, would make it illegal for drivers to have drugs, including marijuana, in their systems.
Under these laws, prosecutors don't have to prove that the drugs impacted the driver's ability to stay on the road. They simply must show the drugs were in the driver's body.
A positive test could mean a 20-year sentence for each count.
Two Reno drivers and one woman from Las Vegas who face decades in prison after being involved in fatal accidents and testing positive for marijuana are challenging the law in court. Their success or failure could affect legislation across the country.
"The intent (of the law) was to make sure that if someone was driving under the influence of a controlled substance, they would be held responsible for loss of life," said U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who sponsored Nevada's prohibited substance drug bill in 1999 while a state senator.
But critics of Nevada's law, including toxicologists, lawyers, civil libertarians and some lawmakers, say the statue is unfair and unconstitutional because it does not require proof that the driver was actually impaired by the drugs.
And, they say, the cut-off levels for the drugs listed in the statute are so small that impairment would be unlikely in many circumstances.
This means that a person who uses marijuana at a party on Saturday night could test positive when in an accident on Monday, days after the drugs were taken, critics say. That's because unlike alcohol, some drugs can stay in a person's system for a long time.
"People are going to prison for smoking a joint a day or two or three ago," said John Watkins, a Las Vegas lawyer for one of three Nevadans currently charged under the law.
"The whole idea of driving under the influence is driving under the influence," he said. "But we're putting people in prison who are not impaired."
Last year, Watkins challenged the law in the Nevada Supreme Court. But the justices upheld the statute, saying: "the governmental interest in maintaining safe highways is sufficient for our prohibited substance statute to survive a constitutional attackâ"
Despite the high court's ruling, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, is determined to overhaul the law.
She and two other lawmakers, Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks and Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill during the last session that would increase the statute's allowable amounts of marijuana in an attempt to measure impairment, not just the presence of drug.
They plan to bring it back in 2005.
