Amy Finch McCormick was charged in a fatal head-on collision last weekend on the connector of James Island. She also has a serious record of driving under the influence, according to authorities. Her out-of-state driver’s license had been suspended for a time after a DUI arrest in 1999, during which she refused to take a breathalyzer test, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles said. She was convicted.

McCormick, 37, remains at Medical University Hospital as she recovers from her injuries. Her son, three-years-old, is staying in the Children’s Hospital. He was severely injured in the rear of the Toyota Camry. He is suffering a fractured spine and is using a ventilator to assist in his breathing.

The other victim, 36-year-old Brett Maynard, is a local chef. He was in the other car, a Nissan Altima, when he was killed instantly. He was on his way home from his job at 39 Rue de Jean. His wife, Jill Maynard, was in the car as well at the time of the accident. She had just finished her shift at the High Cotton Restaurant. She suffered a fracture in her right foot, as well as both ankles, and a lesion in her stomach area, according to authorities.

Charleston Police records also show McCormick admitted she had been drinking that morning and was taking the prescription medication Fluoxetine, a generic substitute for Prozac. Patients who take Fluoxetine are warned to avoid drinking alcohol because it can increase some of the side effects, such as impaired thinking or reactions.

Police said McCormick was driving the wrong way across the connector.

At the hospital, she told police she had lived on James Island for five months but was not familiar with the highway that connects downtown Charleston to James Island, a report said. She smelled of alcohol, and when questioned, she said she had two glasses of wine about five hours earlier, according to the report.

McCormick is charged with child endangerment and three counts of felony DUI, the jail said. Her total bond is being held at $400,000.

Although this case was reported earlier this year it is still a very interesting look into the working of the law and the potential to be pulled over and arrested for inaccurate charges.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Heather Squires was the designated driver for her husband and a college friend who was visiting from Tucson to celebrate his acceptance into law school.

At Chuy’s in Tempe, Heather’s brother and her husband and the soon-to-be-law-school student knocked off four pitchers of beer until later that evening.

Around 9:30 p.m., they decided to head home and entered into Jason Squires’ new pickup truck, with Heather as the driver until they were abruptly pulled over.

A police officer riding a motorcycle pulled the truck over as Heather drove through an intersection of Baseline Road and Mesa Drive. She had failed to flip on her lights, as she claimed she was unfamiliar with her husband’s new vehicle.

Heather was ordered out of the vehicle and almost immediately handcuffed. She was taken to the Mesa Police Department and charged with both driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit. The truck was then searched and impounded.

Records prove that Heather Squires’ blood alcohol content that night was 0.00. Many residents of Arizona are outraged at the situation and feel the situation should be remedied. Many drivers have had a similar situation occur while their blood alcohol contents have been far below the legal limit.

Although it is important to keep drinking and driving off of the roads, it is important to keep such regulations in check. Even a 0.2 can affect judgment and vision, so it is important for drivers to remember to be safe and not drink and drive. But it is also important to protect drivers from harsh, undeserved punishments as the legal limit is 0.8 in all states.

But Heather’s case is the only one I’ve seen in which the driver drank nothing. It certainly makes me wonder whether her treatment was related to the fact that her husband, Jason, is a DUI attorney based in Mesa.

A few months before Heather’s arrest, in fact, he helped a client beat the rap for extreme DUI at a jury trial, even though records suggest the guy was guilty.

The officer who arrested the guy? Bond Gonzalez — the same cop who would arrest Heather Squires.

Heather Locklear was arrested by California cops for driving under the influence, for the second time this year, according to local law enforcement. She was booked for suspicion of driving, while high on prescription drugs on Saturday before she made bail out of the Santa Barbara County Jail at about 11:30 p.m., authorities said.

Locklear is a 47-year-old actress of California. She was arrested while in her neighborhood of Montecito at about 4:30 p.m., when she caught the attention of a concerned driver, cops said.

“She [Locklear] was observed by a citizen pulling out of a parking lot and the woman [witness] thought she [Locklear] was driving really erratically,” CHP spokesman Tom Marhsall said.

“She [the witness] didn’t know who she [the driver] was.”

The witness called emergency personnel after spotting the actress frequently stopping and getting out her car within a few minutes, according to cops. When an officer arrived, Locklear’s car was parked, blocking a lane of Highway 192, according to authorities. She passed several tests to prove she was not drunk, but the police further investigated to find she was impaired on an undisclosed prescription drug. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff released a mug shot of the fried actress, with running mascara and dark roots showing through her bleached blonde hair.

A representative for the actress could not be reached for comments on her condition.

Ventura County paramedics rushed to Locklear’s home in March after the shrink called cops, fearing the actress could be despondent. She stabilized, and then in April checked into an Arizona psychological treatment facility for depression and anxiety. Friends have said Locklear has been down in the dumps since her 11-year marriage to rocker Richie Sambora fell apart at the end of 2005.

Cincinnati Bengals defensive lineman Jason Shirley was driving with a BAC of .12 last October while he was at Fresno State. He was finally sentenced to 30 days in a work program after he was convicted of DUI / DWI and hit and run charges. His first trial ended with a hung jury.

Shirley was originally arrested for driving his car into an apartment building and then driving off. He had failed his breathalyzer at the time. During his first trial, Fresno State coach Pat Hill took the stand and testified that Shirley suffered a concussion during a game against Nevada. The defense was that the concussion caused Shirley to make these bad decisions. That ended in a mistrial.

The second trial just concluded and after three hours of deliberation, the jury found Shirley guilty on three misdemeanor counts. He was sentenced to 30 days in a work program.

This time around, Shirley took the stand in his own behalf and admitted that he drank a 40 oz bottle of beer at a buddy’s house before getting into the car. He also testified that the beer didn’t make him drunk though two tests showed he was well over the legal limit. Shirley also officially testified that he had thought he ran over a curb at the time of the accident.

Although it may not seem that way, a hung jury is often a victory for the defense in a California DUI / DWI case. In many cases, the prosecutor will decline to retry the case after having difficulty convincing 12 jurors of the driver’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Bengals released a statement about Shirley:

“The club is aware that the vehicular charges against Jason Shirley, stemming from his college career, have been resolved against him,” the Bengals said in the statement. “He will likely complete the legal obligations required by the court during the offseason, and the club expects that he will do what he needs to do to put this incident behind him and contribute to the football team.”

Four Napa Valley college students were killed late Saturday night in St. Helena. The crash involved a head-on collision with three separate vehicles. Two drivers were charged with drinking and driving, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash occurred 11:50 p.m. on Deer Park Road near Sanitarium Road just north of St. Helena.

The victims, four young men, all attended Pacific Union College, a Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts college in Angwin. They were Boaz Pak, 20, Luke Nishikawa, 22, Simon Son, 19, and Chong Shin, 20, a college spokeswoman said Sunday.

According to friends of the students, the four men had just finished playing basketball at the college’s gym and were on their way to the local grocery store prior to the accident.

CHP Sgt. Trent Cross said the four students were headed west when the driver lost control of a speeding black Honda Civic, crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a Toyota T100 pickup truck in the rear-end. Pak, Nishikawa, Son and Shin were all pronounced dead at the scene, Cross said.

The driver of the pickup truck, 28-year-old Sandallo Martinez, was critically injured and airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Both Martinez as well as the driver of the white Honda Civic, 20-year-old Carlos Ortiz, appeared to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, according to Sgt. Cross.

Ortiz, who suffered only minor injuries, was arrested for drunken driving. Martinez, who remained at the hospital Sunday, was also facing DUI charges, said Cross. He also mentioned high speed was also a contributing factor.

“The PUC community mourns the loss of four wonderful young men who were already giving service back to the community,” Pacific Union College President Richard Osborn said. “Our entire campus is grieving along with their families. But as a faith based college, we have hope that springs from our beliefs as we celebrate all these young men accomplished in their brief lives.”

A fourteen year old suffered severe head injuries after being struck by a drunken driver as he was skateboarding with friends on Los Alisos Boulevard. Nathan Gonzalez Nathan was taken to CHOC at Mission with severe head trauma, and placed on life support. Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Bernardi, the city’s chief of police services, called this the worst accident he’s seen involving a skateboarder and a vehicle. Nathan was not wearing a helmet. He was from Mission Viejo where neighbors and residents of Aliso Villas have gathered to protest the dangerous road conditions which contributed to the death. The poor visibility on the street is due to many cars parked by Madero Street auto mechanic businesses.

Kathy Miramontes, a neighbor, has petitioned the city for speed bumps and even urged the city to paint curbs red and monitor the speed of vehicles traveling through the busy neighborhood. Johnny David Perez was the driver suspected of driving under the influence and striking the teenager.

The offender, Perez, will be held civilly and criminally responsible for Nathan’s fatal auto accident injuries. But neighbors such as Miramontes raise important issues. For years, they have approached the city of Mission Viejo to alert city officials about several dangerous conditions that exist on that roadway. The city apparently did take a few steps to monitor speeding motorists.

Under the provisions of California’s Government Code section 835, a public entity is liable for the damages of person injured because of a condition of public property when the injured person proves that: a. There was a dangerous condition on the property at the time of the accident; b. The injury was caused by that dangerous condition and c. The dangerous condition created a reasonable foreseeable risk of injury of the kind that occurred.

A double fatal accident that took the lives of two teenagers and injured two more Saturday is under investigation by the California Highway Patrol. Investigators said three factors influenced the deadly crash were speed, alcohol and inexperience.

Just shortly before midnight on Saturday an SUV veered out of control on a narrow country road near Kerman. The SUV was holding five teenagers and killed Melina Sandoval, 19, of Madera and Thomas Nazaroff, 14, of Kerman.

According to investigators of the CHP, the car was speeding down Mckinley Avenue near Sycamore when the front passenger grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it to the right, causing the driver to lose control.

After the SUV flipped over several times, Sandoval and Nazaroff were both ejected from the backseat of the car. The driver and another passenger suffered minor and moderate injuries and were taken to community Regional Medical Center. None of the three teens in the backseat were wearing their seatbelts, and all five had been drinking.

Students in Kerman are shocked to know their friend and classmate lost his life over the weekend. Michael Rodrigues, Kerman, says “I couldn’t believe that it happened to one of my best friends.”

Ron Dchamplian, California Highway Patrol, says “You’re not supposed to have any passengers under the age of 20 during that first 12 months of your license when you’re provisional. And obviously, the drinking is a no brainier. You’re not supposed to be drinking if you’re under age.”

Investigators believe the victims attended a party Saturday night. But they haven’t said where and who supplied the alcohol, which is a question on the mind of many Kerman students. Gordon Halstead, Kerman, says “Well we haven’t been back to school yet. So we’ll find out that tomorrow other than that, everybody is shocked that it happened and who it happened to.”

Due to the circumstances surrounding the accident, the driver could be facing felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter charges.

Matthew David Alfonso, a resident of Redding, was sentenced to 12 days in Shasta County jail on Friday. He was also placed on three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving in connection with a fatal pedestrian accident outside a Redding bar in September.

According to police reports, Alfonso ran over 26-year-old Nicole Ritter, of Redding, after she apparently tried to “dive” into a passenger-side window of his sport utility vehicle as he was leaving Bert & Ernie’s bar on Industrial Street just after 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 14. It also said that Alfonso told police that Ritter, a mother of three young children, was “upset” and was trying to get into his SUV. Alfonso told police that he began to drive away in order to “avoid the drama,” the police report said. As he began to accelerate, he felt “two bumps” and stopped, the report said. Nicole Ritter fell under the SUV’s wheels, and died the next day at Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

Nicole Ritter’s ex-husband, Jeremy Ritter, was passenger in the SUV at the time of the accident, has said that the 24-year-old Alfonso drove off while his ex-wife was holding on to the car’s door and talking to her brother Joseph Edward Sorber, 32, of Bella Vista, who was in the front passenger seat.

Shasta County District Attorney Jerry Benito said Friday that more serious charges were not sought against Alfonso because the evidence indicates that Ritter’s own actions helped to cause her death.

Blood tests showed that he Alfonso a 0.21 percent blood-alcohol level, the police report said. Benito said that Nicole Ritter’s blood-alcohol test came back at 0.25 percent. He was ordered to complete a six-month alcohol counseling program, cannot possess or drink any alcohol during the term of his probation, and is prohibited from entering a business where alcohol is the primary item for sale.

Furthermore, he cannot own or drive a vehicle that does not have a breath-alcohol ignition interlock device for the next three years and must also attend a therapy sessions.

On Friday November 21, a crash occurred in Vienna Township of Michigan which left two area men dead early on Friday morning. The crash was undetected for many hours before the sun rose and their frozen bodies were discovered. None of the neighbors in the area had awoken to the sound of the crash.

Genesee County authorities have stated these two young people, 28-year-old Johnny Quackenbush and 27-year-old Brian Lee Schmitzer. The two young men were driving 90 miles an hour when they swerved off of the road and struck a tree which catapulted the both men and split the car in two. The two were heading eastbound on Frances Road just east of Elms Road when Johnny apparently lost control of his Pontiac Grand Prix, just missing a nearby house and crashing into the tree. Investigators estimate that the actual crash happened at approximately 4:30 a.m. Unfortunately, the accident was not called in until approximately three hours later. Neither occupant of the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt.

Police hold strong suspicions that alcohol was involved and are awaiting the results of toxicology tests. The crash was a surprise to neighbors who said they didn’t realize anything had happened until they walked out Friday morning and saw police cars.

“I heard a car racing overnight but I didn’t hear any crash,” said Robert Hubbard, who lives nearby. A woman in a house next to the crash site slept through it, officials said.

Friday’s crash is not the first time someone has been killed in the area.

A 90-year-old Ithaca woman was killed in October 2007 in a two-car crash a short distance away at Elms and Frances roads.

Still, neighbors said crashes in that area are rare in the winter months.

“We don’t get too many crashes this time of year,” said Leona Elasivich.