By Editor
Mothers Against Drunk Driving issued a statement asking people to designate a sober driver this Halloween weekend during festivities. The group is especially concerned since Halloween falls on a Friday this year.
According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, 66 people were killed in DUI accidents last year from October 30 to November 1 in 2007.
To be safe this Halloween, MADD advices:
- People find a sober driver before celebrations begin;
- People under 21 are not served alcohol;
- If you are planing a party, include non-alcoholic drink options for people and do no serve alcohol the last hour of the party; and
- Be ready to make sure everyone gets home safe.
Have a Happy Halloween!
By Editor
Early Monday morning, Luis Vizcaino was arrested for DUI in Tampa, FL, reported Sports Illustrated. The 34-year-old is a reliever for the Colorado Rockies.
According to police reports, Vizcaino was driving 71 mph in a 45 mph zone. When police pulled him over, they noticed his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He smelled of alcohol as well.
When he took a blood alcohol content test, his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit.
By Editor
Homework Assignment Inspires DUI Bill
According to a report by the Bulletin, Paul Clymer has introduced legislation that would require mandatory ignition interlock devices for all DUI offenders.
Clymer’s idea for the new legislation came from a 14-year-old boy.
Read more about how the high school sophomore’s homework assignment turned into a purposed DUI law.
The Case for Tougher DUI Penalties
A case involving a Kansas DUI arrest has Kansas residents demanding a change in the state’s DUI law and insisting on stiffer DUI penalties for repeat offenders.
Find out what these tougher laws would mean for people with a DUI conviction.
By Editor
According to The Associated Press, Joba Chamberlain has been arrested for DUI, speeding and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle. He was stopped for speeding on U.S. 77 near his hometown of Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday morning around one.
Reports are surfacing that the pitcher was in an altercation with a Red Sox fan at a strip club before the incident.
Originally, the press was reporting that the fan was taunting Chamberlain about his team; however, people at the bar are now saying that those comments were good-natured and the real fight began over a woman taking pictures of Chamberlain on her cell phone.
By Editor
After four-year-old Jon Port’s death in 1991, a grass-roots movement began to get stricter DUI laws passed in Wisconsin.
Finally in 1999, a law was passed that made a fifth offense of drinking and driving a felony. The Wisconsin government hoped this new law would keep repeat offenders of DUIs off the road.
However, the Journal Sentinel completed an analysis that found that less than half the people sentenced for a felony DUI in Milwaukee County go to prison.
The survey looked at all criminal convictions for people convicted of five DUI offenses. There were 161 fifth offense cases from 1999 to 2006.
According to the report, only 70 defendants went to prison, while most got their sentence reduced by completing boot camps, treatment programs or petitioning the judge. The survey also found that about 25% of the people with fifth-offense convictions have already re-offended at least once.
By Editor
Ohio judges violate DUI law
Under a 2004 Ohio law, drivers with multiple DUI convictions who still need to drive under provisional driver’s licenses are required to have special DUI license plates assigned to their vehicles.
The DUI law mandates that judges order the DUI license plates.
Approximately 33,000 drivers in Ohio have five or more DUI convictions, only 8,500 vehicles in the entire state had been issued the special DUI license plates as of the end of last year.
By Editor
In the early morning hours of October 5, a couple was caught by police having sex in their car, reported The Chicago Tribune.
While that might not be an unusual act for officers to find couples in parked cars committing, it is unusual to bust someone for trysting in handicapped spot in a police station parking lot.
A Pennsylvania couple was caught in the Hellertown police station parking lot, after someone called to report a suspicious vehicle parked in front of the station.
The driver, Dennis Conor Cullen, and his female passenger admitted that they were unaware about where they had parked or that they were surrounded by several marked police cars.
Cullen was charged with a DUI after admitting that he had been drinking at a Lehigh University function earlier in the evening.
By Editor
For all of you that have ever come home from a good night a little tipsy and logged into your gmail account to do some emailing you will regret in the morning, google has a solution for you.
Google’s Mail Goggles requires you to solve a few simple math problems before you can send your message, reported The Chicago Tribune.
And if you are coherrent enough to solve the few problems, then Google feels you are sober enough to handle the rebercussions.
In order to activate the new application, you just have to the go to ’settings’ at the top of your account and then click on the ‘labs’ section.
By Editor
ACLU Says Challenges to Ohio’s No Refusal Law Likely
Under the new Ohio DUI law, drivers who have had two or more DUI convictions can be forced by authorities to submit to a blood or urine test to determine their blood alcohol content.
Previously, the law had required that authorities obtain a search warrant from a judge to test a DUI suspect’s blood or urine in situations where no consent was given.
Civil liberties advocates are speaking out about the new DUI law in Ohio, saying that they believe it is unconstitutional.
Find out more about the debate on this new law.
Utah’s Fruitless New Liquor Law
Utah lawmakers have been at it again. The state already has some of the strangest and strictest liquor sales laws in the country, but apparently legislators still felt that there was some tinkering to be done.
Now Utah has become the first state to ban some fruity alcoholic drink sales.
Read the full article.
Party Bus Driver Playing Police or Parent?
And with this time of the year comes pumpkin carving, sweaters and Homecoming – a quasi-holiday for schools that runs from September to November.
Students can’t wait for festivities, which usually mean an early dismissal for a pep rally, parade, football game and dance.
Maybe you or some of your friends drank after the dance – or maybe even before the dance. You were all underage and alcohol is prohibited on school property, but that was a part of the Homecoming ritual – no big deal.
Except for some teenagers in Highland Park, IL, underage drinking became a big deal.
Read more about the controversey here.
By Editor
According to firstcoastnews.com, Victoria Viviano was arrested for a DUI after driving to her friend’s rescue.
Her friend called her during a DUI stop at Neptune Beach, FL for help. Viviano drove to her friend’s location and went to speak with her. Police noticed Viviano was staggering as she walked.
The arresting officer finished with the first DUI stop and went to speak to Viviano who had gotten back in her car.
The officer smelled alcohol on her breath and noticed her eyes were bloodshot. Viviano refused to take a field sobriety test.