DUI
Drunk Driving Articles: DUI News and Information
Drunk Driving Articles and News. The DUI News Articles are made up of DUI, DWI and drunk driving articles as well as DUI news stories and drunk driving laws, news, statistics, prevention, counseling, BAC, field sobriety tests and related information about drunk driving. The drunk driving articles are provided to you in a social media environment which allows comments on each of our articles.
Arrests for DUI in Georgia Way Down
Drunk driving arrests and alcohol related accidents much lower over holiday.
The Georgia State Patrol is reporting much fewer incidents of drunk driving and accidents across the state during the New Year’s holiday. No one died during the New Year’s festivities, and arrests for driving under the influence in Georgia were down 25% from last year. The total number of vehicle accidents was nearly halved, making it one of the safest holidays in memory.
State troopers attribute the reduction to a weakened economy, the fact that the holiday fell in the middle of the week and the impact of safe driving and anti-Georgia DUI messages.
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Tennessee DUI Reforms Suffer With Weak Economy
Efforts to reduce drunk driving in Tennessee curtailed by limited budgets.
Gov. Phil Bresden has made the fight against driving under the influence in Tennessee a high priority during his tenure. In early 2006 he formed a task force that established a number of legislative goals aimed at reforming Tennessee DUI laws. A severe revenue shortfall in the state, however, has led to a narrower focus.
The governor’s spokesperson, Lydia Lenker, said that, “when the state’s economy took a downturn, we had to set...legislation aside.” There was a decision to push for one change that had the most impact, Administrative License Revocation, which called for the immediate seizure of a driver’s license from those suspected of drunk driving in Tennessee. The proposed legislation made it through both houses of the state General Assembly before studies showed that the law would create no revenue and would cost $2.8 million in the first year alone. There was little opposition to the bill though the sponsors abandoned the effort for budget reasons.
Lawmakers say that public safety remains a key concern, but acknowledge that there has to be fiscal responsibility in any legislative effort. Some of the smaller DUI changes that were enacted in 2008 included: - Reinstating a 48-hour jail sentence for first offenders of Tennessee DUI and 24-hours of roadside trash pick-up wearing vests that say ‘I am a drunk driver’. Previously the law called for 24-hours each of incarceration and trash pick-up. - Removing the two hour limit for conducting breath or blood tests after an arrest for suspected TN DUI. - Clarifying prosecution in cases of child injury in a alcohol related accident.
The legislative priorities of anti-DUI advocacy groups call for resurrection of the license revocation bill as well as lowering the legal threshold for intoxication from the existing BAC of .08% and making the installation of ignition interlock devices mandatory for all convicted DUI offenders. Ms. Lenker said that cost neutrality will be the key during the upcoming legislative session. With the governor working to reduce spending and close a $1 billion budget gap, adding programs that require new positions and costs is not feasible. DUI related issues, like license revocation, will need to wait for a better economic outlook.
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Filed in DUI Prevention | Tennessee DUI | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ignition Interlock Devices Considering For All California DUI
Even first offenders of drunk driving in California would be required to install the special device.
A California state legislator has introduced a measure calling for the mandatory installation of an ignition interlock device if convicted of drunk driving. Assembly member Mike Feuer says that Assembly Bill 91 will create a four county pilot program that requires the ignition interlock for all individuals, even first time offenders, found guilty of driving under the influence in California.
The device requires the motorist to breath into a tube and the breath sample is testing for blood alcohol content. If alcohol above a preset limit is detected, the device disables the vehicle ignition. Currently the requirement for the installation of an ignition interlock device is at the discretion of the court, which takes a number of factors into consideration before making its decision, including as the results of an alcohol abuse evaluation and any prior DUI convictions. California DUI law provides for restricted licenses in certain situations though Feuer cites that motorists can still drink and drive. The proposed bill would call for the replacement of the restricted license with the mandatory installation of an ignition interlock.
There will be no taxpayer funds involved with the new legislation. Those convicted of California DUI will be required to pay for the installation and the monthly fee for maintenance of the ignition interlock. The pilot program would begin in July 1, 2010 and run until January 1, 2015.
Similar legislation has been passed into law in five states, including Illinois, New Mexico and, most recently, Alaska. Initial reports indicate that repeat offenses for driving while intoxicated are down in those states.
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Filed in California DUI | DUI Penalties & Fines | Permalink | Comments (0)
OnStar Signal Leads to Pennsylvania DUI
Man arrested for drunk driving after GM device notified police of car trouble.
A 22-year old man from Stroudsburg has been charged with drunk driving in Pennsylvania after the OnStar system in his vehicle signaled car trouble. Paul W. Sinker III got his car stuck in the mud while he was turning around 1:00 am on New Year’s Day. The General Motors electronic safety, navigation and communications device alerted police to possible problems. The officers dispatched to the scene to investigate detected alcohol.
Sinker failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence in Pennsylvania.
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Filed in DUI Related | Pennsylvania DUI | Permalink | Comments (0)
Penalties Increase for Alaska DUI
A conviction for drunk driving in Alaska will result in an ignition interlock device.
On the first of the year a new law went into effect requiring motorists convicted of driving under the influence in Alaska to install an ignition interlock device if they wish to continue driving. The miniature breath testing device requires the driver to provide a breath test before starting the vehicle. If a blood alcohol content in excess of a pre-set amount, usually under .03%, the device will disable the vehicle ignition.
Alaska joins five other states in requiring ignition interlock devices for all, even first time, DUI offenders.
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Rip Torn Hit With New DUI
Actor arrested for drunk driving in Connecticut.
Rip Torn has been charged with another DUI in Salisbury, Connecticut. Police report that Torn had just left the White Hart Inn and was driving on Route 44 in his Subaru with a Christmas tree on the roof. Unfortunately he was in the breakdown lane.
Torn failed part of a field sobriety test and refused to submit to a breath test, and he was booked on suspicion of drunk driving in Connecticut. The 77-year actor pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence and failure to drive in the proper lane.
This is Torn’s third DUI arrest in five years. In April 2007, he paid a fine and had his license suspended for driving while intoxicated in New York. He was acquitted for NY DWI in 2004 after jurors said the prosecution failed to prove Torn had been drinking prior to a fender bender with a taxi cab. As it is his first Connecticut DUI offense, Torn may be able to qualify for Connecticut’s alcohol education program which would lead to the dropping of the charges if he successfully completes terms of probation.
Torn has appeared in a number of movies and television series, including ‘Men in Black’, ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ and a recurring role on ‘Thirty Rock’.
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Filed in Celebrity DUI | Connecticut DUI | Permalink | Comments (0)
Teen Reports Her Own Drunk Driving Offense in North Dakota
17-year old calls the police to say she was driving under the influence in Bismarck.
Police in Bismarck North Dakota received a surprising phone call on New Year’s Eve. A 17-year girl called to report that she was driving under the influence. She told police her location and officers found her parked near downtown.
The unidentified teen failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for failing to have control of her vehicle while intoxicated. While she admitted to having driven around for hours, the underage motorist was not charged with North Dakota DUI because her keys were in her purse and the vehicle was parked at the time of the arrest.
Police feel her call was a plea for help. The girl said that she had been drinking for much of the previous two weeks and that she felt her life was out of control. She was released to the custody of her parents on New Year’s Day.
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Blood Tests Increasing During Texas DWI Arrests
Search warrants to take a blood sample used in fight against drunk driving in Texas.
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using a controversial tactic in their fight against drunk driving. Arresting officers are relying on search warrants to demand blood samples from motorists suspected of driving while intoxicated in Texas.
The effort is in reaction to motorists who refuse to submit to a breath test to check blood alcohol content. Such refusal is permissible under state law, though it hinders prosecution of Texas DWI cases because of a lack of evidence. The Texas DWI law states that a blood draw is appropriate for testing motorists who have a prior DWI conviction who have caused an accident with injury. However, both county sheriff’s departments and municipal police departments have implemented ‘no refusal’ programs in their crackdown on drunk driving in Texas. Judges are available for the issuance of search warrants that forces motorists to comply with the request for a blood sample.
Central Texas Police Chief Art Acevedo has used such a tactic to check for driving while intoxicated in Austin. In 2005, the Fort Worth suburb of Dalworthington Gardens was the first to train officers in blood draw procedures. Harris County has used evidentiary warrants about 300 times during the past 16 months.
The American Civil Liberties Union has questioned the programs from a number of perspectives. Besides being an expansion of what the law outlines, the group has found that warrants are often rubber stamped without probable cause and they are a violation of privacy as protected by the constitution. The actual person and facility in which a blood draw can be taken is also clearly outlined by Texas law because it is considered evidence in a criminal case. In apparent contrast to the law, in some cases police officers are being trained to perform blood draws in jail facilities rather than using a phlebotomists or trained nurses in hospitals.
Police say that the blood draw policy is part of an on-going campaign against Texas DWI, and that it is gaining acceptance from law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the state.
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Sam Shepard Arrested for DUI in Illinois
Sam Shepard DUI: Actor charged with drunk driving in Normal, Illinois Saturday January 3, 2009 around 2AM.
The actor, playwright and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Sam Shepard was charged with driving under the influence in Central Illinois early Saturday. Shepard reportedly had been drinking at 'Fat Jacks', a bar in Bloomington, and was stopped around 2:00 am for speeding while on his way back to his hotel. The arresting officer said Shepard appeared intoxicated and had driven his Chevy Blazer onto the curb during the traffic stop. His blood alcohol content was more than twice the .08% legal limit for intoxication in Illinois. Shepard posted bond and was released Sunday.
Shepard, 65, was driving from Minnesota through Illinois on his was home to Kentucky. He appeared in the films 'Black Hawk Down', 'Swordfish', 'The Pelican Brief' and 'The Notebook'. He received a Pulitzer in 1979 for his play 'Buried Child'. Shepard lives with his longtime partner Jessica Lange, with whom he has two children.
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Heather Locklear's California DUI Dismissed
Actress Heather Locklear pleads to lesser offense of reckless driviing and receives probation.
Heather Locklear entered a plea of no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving and, in exchange, had her case of driving under the influence of drugs dismissed. Locklear was not in the Santa Barbara court on Friday morning when her California defense attorney accepted a plea bargain that calls for the actress to serve three years of probation, pay a $700 fine and complete a 12-hour drug education program.
Last September the 47-year old Locklear was charged with California DUI in Montecito after a 911 call alerted police to her erratic driving. She was determined to be impaired by prescription drugs. A blood test confirmed no presence of alcohol or illegal narcotics.
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from,but,unless you're willing to "turn the page" on our freedom,civil rights and way of life as Americans and unless you're willing to sell out this great country to mindless irrational pressure groups and eventually probably find yourself saluting the chinese or the north korean flag,I think
you should reconsider your way of thinking.just ask yourself,
since when was using "fear tactics" ,imposing "harsher laws" and "severe punishment" the best way to solving problems in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? the solutions have to be in line with our core values and the spirit of our constitution.
we can not afford paying our freedom and civil rights as a price for the so called "safety".
Our core values in America include respect for our neighbors. Our right to live. The Constitution establishes our rights and in return, we are asked only to be law abiding citizens. Asking and expecting people to make responsible choices is not a fear tactic. The only people that fear harsher laws are the selfish individuals that feel they are above the law. The ones that put their own desire to drive drunk over the rights of the innocent person they kill. What are mindless irrational pressure groups are you so frightened of? Driving drunk is not a civil right.
this law in the States with nothing to fear because the only people who will be affected by it are those"selfish"assholes!
harsh laws don't creat civilized citizens.harsh laws don't creat civilized society.and harsh laws certainly don't solve problems.they rather pull countries backwards and into the garbage can of human history.there will always be folks who violate the law for whatever reasons.there will always be folks who aren't civilized enough to respect other people's rights.however,they should never be the excuse for uncivilized
laws as the law's role in a democracy is to "set the level" for civilization and "effectively" bring the people UP to that level rather than bringing the legal system DOWN to the level of the violators.everybody wants to live no argument there,but,what kind of life do we want for ourselves and our future generations?you're asking me what pressure groups I'm "afraid" of? I'm talking about self righteous zealots like MADD,DADD,"SADD" and the rest of the ADDs who pretend their purpose is to save us from crimes and deliver us from sins by promoting false ideas,skewed statistics and generic science while pushing for authoritarian laws and hidden agendas!such groups will stop at nothing,luring mostly naive people into supporting their "cause" with the use of distorted
facts and cheap rhetorics.ironically enough,the laws in Saudi Arabia are pushed NOT by the average citizens nor exactly by the government but by none other than a "pressure group" named
"wahabis" with the unfortunate blessing of great numbers of the mislead public!do you see some similarity?are you afraid yet?well maybe when you get pulled over someday and your BAC reads 0.00001 on the machine "harsher law" and you get your wiener amputated "harsher punishment" then you'll get the point!!
We encarcerate more of our population then any other civilized nation on earth.
It was merely pot, now it is alcohol. While they utilize the DUI statutes it does not matter, many are jailed merely for being found to have been drinking wether they drove or not.
The ravenous appetite of our out of control penal system will never be satisfied but only grow as more and more are fed to it.As thathappens more and more unreasonable laws and law enforcement. Given the stories coming out now about the crimes being perpetrated by law enforcement officials in thier quest to feed this lion it should not be long.
We have become a nation of unreasonable incarceration. the war on drugs could not keep the system fed nor will these unreasonable DUI laws. They will only wreck innocent lives in the name of saving life while the death rate on our highways continues climbing unabated. If they really wanted to decrease highway fatailities they would fix the roads. And stop cramming so many onto so small a driving area. When the number of cars goes up and the roadway area does not then the danger/death rate goes up. Putting people in jail does nothing to change this equation.
The devestation of the war on drugs and DUI statutes will not go on as they are today for long. As more and more families are kicked to the curb by the real consequences of these barbarian methods more will rise up until there are so many that jails will finally and mercifully be closed down and the lions that fed on the carnage sent packing.
the real victims are not only those in prison, but their families as well who suffered the economic consequences and emotional trauma inflicted upon them by a system that allowed the real animals to incarcerate good people for the real crime of having normal human faults.
This will certainly happen and when it does we should be prepared to deal with the economic re-patriation of the real victims of these laws.
I could not agree with you more. What was the outcome of your ordeal? Think I am going to lobby for NDDAMM. Non Drunk Drivers Against Madd Mothers.
what's the ACLU's stance on this issue? I think they should
get involved because this is not just about "drunk driving" ,this goes way beyond that to hit our very civil liberties!
for those millions who have been miraculously turned into
"criminals" for committing NO ACTUAL crime, I think it's time for them to stop feeling guilty or even sorry and stand up for this wave of injustice.
and for those who FOOLISHLY support MADD and their likes in the name of "safety", take a deeper look, do you really want to live in a country where random "check points" manned by the MARINE CORPS in some cases, are spread all over our cities and counties? do you want to live in a country where the average citizen is presumed GUILTY untill proven otherwise?
if you think drunk drivers are a threat, MADD is far more
dangerous of a threat to you and your children, you just don't know it yet.
