Karen Karapetyan, a 33-year-old of Garden Grove, died after a suspected drunk driver ran a red light and hit an Orange County man’s taxi which then caused a four car crash, according to Fox News. The wavering car was a grey BMW, driven by Avishkar Padhye, who was reportedly traveling southbound on Highland Avenue. The driver under the influence sped through a red light on Sunset Boulevard around 2:30 a.m., then striking Karapetyan’s eastbound taxi cab on the driver’s side, killing Karen on impact.

The accident sent the two vehicles shooting down the road toward two other vehicles, causing only minor injuries to one other person. The force of the impact caused the cab to slide into a Toyota that was stopped on northbound Highland Avenue. The taxi and the Toyota then collided with another BMW that also was stopped in a northbound lane of Highland, police said. Avishkar Padhye was arrested for drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, according to Los Angeles Police Department officials. Following a Field Sobriety Test, Padhye was found to be under the influence of alcohol and was subsequently booked for 191.5(a) PC, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
“At least two or three more victims were transported” to hospitals, according to Police Lt. Pailet. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded and extracted Karapetyan from his taxi cab and transported him to Cedar Sinai Hospital, where doctors attempted to perform live-saving measures, but he died an hour after the collision. The drivers and passengers of the other vehicles involved in the crash suffered minor injuries, officials said. Padhye is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury and driving with.08 blood-alcohol content. If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 10 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Shari Robertson, a Police Sergeant, was arrested during Ohio drunk driving patrols. Robertson was charged with driving under the influence in Mansfield, Ohio. Shari was stopped for a traffic infraction during a three-day saturation patrol targeting drunk drivers on the roads.

Ohio Highway Patrol Officers witnessed the Police Sergeant driving erratically and then struck a curb with her front right tire while making a wide left turn. The officers began to pursue the vehicle, while the intoxicated officer continued to drive and crossed the center line and almost hit an oncoming vehicle. When the Patrol Officers turned on the siren, Robertson drove off of the road and almost struck a utility pole. According to official police reports, she was texting on her cell phone when the officers approached her vehicle. Robertson’s speech was slurred and she was very unsteady on her feet. She admitted to consuming over four drinks. She was filed as drunk driving in the state of Ohio and failure to drive in a market lane.

The wheels of justice have been set in motion as to what type of departmental disciplinary action Mansfield Police Sergeant Shari Robertson might face in the wake of her DUI arrest early Saturday on Main Street in Mansfield. The 41-year-old woman supervises the Mansfield community policing program. While no action has been taken against Robertson as of yet, the director of county safety is taking actions with the residing chief of the police department to determine her work status. As of now, Robertson’s driver’s license is revoked which will make it difficult for her to perform work duties.

The New Jersey State Supreme Court is soon to decide a case that could incrementally affect drunken driving cases in the state. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear substantial arguments which would establish a new course for DWI prosecutions within the state. The justices will be deciding upon the special set of circumstances that are considered before a police officer pulls over a vehicle based on a tip. At this time, these calls are given substantially less weight than anonymous calls from concerned citizens.

The basis of this movement is a New Jersey DWI case against Paul Amelio. While in an argument with his daughter, Paul left his house and drove his vehicle off onto the road. The daughter informed police that her father was intoxicated while driving the vehicle. The alerted officer followed Amelio until he returned home to his driveway, and then charged the man with driving while intoxicated in the state of New Jersey. He pleaded guilty then appealed.

Douglas Kinz, Amelio’s defense attorney, claims that the police did not have sufficient information to warrant such a traffic stop and initiate an arrest. In the past, the courts have judicated that such tips involve specific warrants, and in the case of a suspected intoxicated driver, an estimate of the amount of alcohol the driver has consumed. The daughter’s testimony that her father was ‘drunk’ without witnessing any erratic driving lacks “a reasonable and articulable suspicion that (Amelio) had violated the law.” It was entirely possible that the 17-year-old daughter may not have known the difference between acting belligerent and actually being intoxicated. Kinz raises the question as to whether she was in the same room as her father at the time of the argument. The absence of specific information leaves room for tips to be viewed as vendettas, and can be used as instruments of revenge involving the police.

The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments concerning the procedure in a traffic stop based on tips. If this case is approved it could infringe upon the freedoms of all New Jersey drivers. Kinz warned that, if the court upholds the traffic stop of Amelio, anyone operating a vehicle will be subject to being stopped on a hunch and a guess.

Both a Superior Court and a panel of judges on the state Appellate Division ruled that Amelio’s New Jersey DWI conviction should not stand. Prosecutors however appealed to the higher Supreme Court.

Experts on detoxification and alcohol detection believe this prominent chef of Rhode Island is even lucky to be alive.

“For the average individual, there is a very severe risk of death when you start to approach a reading of .4,” said James Harasymiw, director of Alcohol Detection Services in Big Bend, Wis. He spoke at a conference in Washington on a new screening designed to detect people who have been drinking heavily over the previous four to six weeks even though they appear to be sober.

“He is in a very small class of people because most people — even heavy drinkers — would be unconscious or approaching death to get up to .5. The danger with this guy is that with that kind of tolerance, you may appear to be fine one moment and unconscious the next.”

In his most recent hearing, Stanley was sentenced to one year probation, a $500 fine, 40 hours of community service, and a one-year suspension of his driver’s license.

In Wichita, Kansas, a four-time DUI offender hit and killed a mother and her child. Gary Hammitt had a valid driver’s license when he was arrested last week and charged with running over and killing a Wichita woman and her 4-year-old daughter outside Gardiner Elementary School.Many citizens are outraged that the man was even legally allowed to have a license and the ability to drive around, but Kansas does not terminate a driver’s license until the fifth conviction. In fact, Kansas law offers the same punishment up to four times which involves offenders getting their license suspended for one year followed by a year of driving with a restricted license.

Criminals who refuse to take a blood alcohol test, or who take the test and record a level of 0.15 or higher receive higher penalties. Most members are not surprised that Gary Hammitt has not received any significant punishment or restraint due to the laws, and that is part of the reason they are asking for change.

“I am telling you that there are people in this community who are outraged,” said Mary Ann Khoury, president and chief executive of the DUI Victim Center of Kansas. “We have had nothing but phone calls from people who are just angry.”

But those familiar with state DUI laws said Hammitt’s case is typical for multiple DUI offenders. They said they weren’t surprised to hear he was driving without restrictions just five years after his fourth DUI conviction.

State Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, who has worked closely with DUI laws as a defense lawyer and as a legislator, said he expects this case to “be quite a driver” for new legislation.

Journey said he expects next year’s Legislature to reconsider a proposal that would double the minimum sentences for DUI offenders. Rather than serving a minimum two-day jail term, a first-time offender would have to spend four days behind bars.

Surprisingly, the proposal was rejected last year after sheriffs complained that they didn’t have the jail space.

Journey said he also expects to hear from those who think it would make sense to impose lifetime license suspensions on all third-time DUI offenders. He said he couldn’t support such a proposal.

“It’s easy to be mean on criminal justice issues; it’s much harder to be smart,” he said. “No change in the law is going to change what happens in this case.” But a suspended license for a chronic offender just isn’t enough.

In Louden, Tennessee, Police discovered and then arrested a school bus driver passed out behind the wheel of a loaded bus of children which was halted in the middle of a road. The Loudon County Emergency Management Agency noticed the bus stopped for an extended time around 8 a.m., and then proceeded to alert local police.

“It felt like we were stuck in a tornado, just going side to side, tipping over, rocking back and forth and everything,” according to fifth grader Dylan Elkins. At one point, the bus stopped and Dylan and a few others decided to hop off and head up the road for home.

Fortunately, none of the thirty children seated on the bus were harmed this past Tuesday morning while the driver was operating the bus under the influence. There were eighteen high school students, and additional children were of middle school age and younger.

Police Chief James Webb stated Vicky Lynn Kwasny received a BAC test but the results were not immediately available on the scene. Tennessee’s Bureau of Investigation has the sample of Kwasny’s blood and will be testing it to determine what drugs, if any were in her system. Kwasny was transported to the hospital, and then to the local jail, where she remains in custody, without record of retaining an attorney. Kwasny has been charged with DUI by alcohol and/or drugs and child reckless endangerment.

“I’ve been a police officer here for 26 years and I can never remember anything like this in Loudon,” Police Chief James Webb said.

Wayne Honeycutt, director of schools, claims the 48-year-old woman has been working there for almost a year and holds a clean driving record. She had also passed a background check as well as two drug screenings.

On October 2, Judge Thomas Gainer set bail at $50,000 for a Chicago police officer who held DUI charges which were dismissed against him in a November crash on the 2900 block of North Daman which caused fatalities. Even after this incident the same officer was indicted last week in the same Roscoe Village car accident which ended the lives of two men. Judge Gainer also rejected a request from prosecutors to confiscate John Ardelean’s service weapon.

Ardelean is facing charges of reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence in the crash early last November which killed Miguel Flores, 22, and Erick Lagunas, 21. His original charge was a misdemeanor until they were lifted to a felony of aggravated DUI but then dismissed last February by Cook County Judge Don Panarese, who ruled there was no indication that the off-duty officer was intoxicated. A testimony provided that Michael Lagunas blew a stop sign and that Ardelean’s blood alcohol level was .032, which factored into the judge’s decision.

Despite February’s decision, there are high suspicions that Officer John Ardelean received preferential treatment in the case. In fact there are even witness accounts claiming Ardelean was driving around 60 miles an hour on the strip of Damen Avenue near Oakdale, and proceeding to weave across the center line of the two-lane road trying to pass other cars when his SUV hit the Pontiac.

Nancy Flores, the sister of the deceased Miguel Flores claims “Every day I have to come into this house and every day I have to remind myself that he’s not here. And Ardelean is walking around like he did nothing wrong. And that’s not right.”

To spite the ruling, new evidence has surfaced revealing the defendant consuming alcoholic substances, in the amount of five shots as well as other drinks, in the hours prior to the accident. The prosecutors have reopened their investigation after being alerted to an elongated service tape provided by Martini Ranch of 311 W. Chicago.