Category: General Blog
The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has announced that 2010 will be the Year of the Checkpoint . OTS will be providing a record ,000,000 in grant funding to 148 law enforcment agencies for DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints throughout the state of California. The funding is for more than 2,500 sobriety checkpoints. More than 250 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints will take place statewide between December 18, 2009 and January 3, 2010. The funding is a whopping 47% increase from 2009 where there will be over 1,700 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints statewide. No doubt there will be… Read More
According to the Denver Legal News Examiner and many other news media outlets, the Colorado Springs Police Department crime lab discovered that 82 blood samples taken since January, 2009, were found to have lower blood alcohol concentration levels than initial test samples showed. Now, over 1,000 blood samples are being retested for accuracy. Prosecutors are already contacting defense attorneys for past clients may have been effected by the new discoveries. The Colorado Revenue Department has already restored at least 3 driving privileges who have been convicted of DUI / Drunk Driving based on faulty results. Among the Colorado government authorities… Read More
Police in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania, arrested a 22 year old man this past weekend for DUI / Drunk Driving after he was found asleep in his moving buggy. The horse drawn buggy was moving slowly, at a walking pace, as it was straddling the center line. The sleeping driver/rider was given a breath test with the results being 0. 18%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08% in Pennsylvania. I can see the defense now-the horse was driving the buggy! The alleged sleeping driver was just along for the ride. I wonder if the horse was tested for… Read More
According to the California Highway Patrol, there were 1,314 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests statewide by CHP officers during the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. The number of arrests were down slightly from 2008 when the California Highway Patrol made 1,397 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests statewide. San Diego county California Highway Patrol officers made 94 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests during the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday. This number was also a decrease from 2008 Thanksgiving Holiday when there were 108 DUI / Drunk Driving arrests made by the San Diego county California Highway Patrol. As was well publicized, there were many… Read More
The New York State Assembly passed a bill yesterday that would make it a felony DWI to drive while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle. The bill would also require first time convicted offenders to install an ignition interlock device (IID) in their vehicles. This bill is quickly moving through the New York legislature as it could be passed by the New York Senate and sent to the governor for signature this week. Many sources are saying that if this bill goes into law, New York will have the toughtest DUI / Drunk Driving laws in the nation. To… Read More
As a result of a northern California man having numerous lifetime DUI / Drunk Driving convictions prior to his most recent arrest, a northen California State Senator is proposing legislation to have the driver’s license revoked after a person is convicted of multiple DUI / Drunk Driving convictions. In California, the law used to consider prior DUI / Drunk Driving convictions within 5 years of a current offense to be considered a prior. Subsequently, the law was changed to 7 years. A few years ago, there was a movement to change the law to consider all prior DUI / Drunk… Read More
Recently, the US Supreme Court declined to review a DUI / Drunk Driving Virginia case where the police stopped a suspected drunk driver based on a tipster call to police but the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the driver’s conviction.The reason why the conviction was tossed was because after receiving the tip,the police followed the car and observed no traffic violations but stopped the driver anyway and arrested the driver for drunk driving. The Virginia courts held there was no reasonable suspicion (probable cause)of criminal activity to justify the stop.Some people argue that this is a good decision because the… Read More
Many states are cracking down and charging people with DUI / Drunk Driving who are riding on non-conventional motorized things after they have been drinking. Recently, a Minnesota Man pled guilty to drunk driving after crashing a motorized La-Z-Boy. The chair was powered by a lawnmower engine. Lawnmower engines sometimes have 1 1/2 horsepower. The chair had a stereo and cup holders. After leaving a bar, the rider crashed the chair into a parked vehicle but was not seriously injured. Apparently, the rider had a blood alcohol level of .29. While we have seen a number of cases in California… Read More
California passed a new tough pilot ingnition interlock device law that would require DUI / Drunk Driving offenders (including first time offenders) to install an ignition interlock device on all vehicles owned or operated by the offender. This pilot project law is limited to Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Tulare counties. The law is to take effect July 1, 2010 and is set to expire January 1, 2016. There are certain requirements before the law actually takes effect such as the California Department of Motor Vehicles will be required to obtain, by January 31, 2010, non-California funding for the costs… Read More
There have been some major changes in California DUI / Drunk Driving laws in 2009. The California DMV is now responsible for administering mandatory ignition interlock devices (IID) that are to be installed in vehicles owned or operated by a driver convicted of driving with a suspended license due to a prior DUI / Drunk Driving conviction. Also, Courts may require first time offenders convicted of DUI / Drunk Driving to install ignition interlock devices (IID) who reportedly have a blood/breath alcohol level of 0. 15% at the time of the arrest. Finally, police may impound a vehicle of a… Read More
