Earlier this week in Norwich, Connecticut, a Superior Court Judge ordered Daniel Musser to be held on a $300,000 bond in connection with a fatal crash. Musser, a young 24-year-old, was driving his Honda Accord the wrong way without headlight on Interstate 395 early Saturday when he crashed head-on into a van. According to authorities, the van was carrying young Connecticut College students on their way to the airport.

Elizabeth Durante, a 20-year-old who helped to organize the humanitarian mission to Uganda, was killed in the crash. Musser admitted to consuming “four or five drinks over the course of the evening,” at the Ultra 88 club at Mohegan Sun Casino prior to the accident.

At approximately 3:38 a.m. authorities received a 911 call reporting a vehicle without lights traveling west on the eastbound side of Route 2A in Montville. When Police arrived at the scene of the crash, Durante (the young woman) was found dead at the scene. Other passengers were immediately transported to area hospitals for treatment. The driver of the van claimed he had not seen the oncoming car until it was 25 feet away. Musser was found with a strong scent of alcohol tracing his breath, bloodshot eyes, and then failed to pass a sobriety test.

The Bail Commissioner stated that Musser had been with the Navy for four and a half years and has resided in Connecticut for the past two and a half years. Although he has no prior criminal record, Musser was placed on a suicide watch and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. His set court date is for March 23rd.

Musser is charged with second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, first-degree reckless endangerment, operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving the wrong way on the highway and operating without minimum insurance.

Today, March 3, 2009, a serious DUI related hit and run motor vehicle crashed at approximately 7:50 a.m. The first responder was OFC Hanner with the Frederick Police Departments Patrol Division. The personal injury motor vehicle accident was attended to on the 400th block of Carrollton Drive. OFC Hannger discovered Ms. Candy Sue Mercer laying behind the wheel of an Oldsmobile mini-van. She was very dazed and out of it because she claimed she had just been struck while parked in a designated parking lot.

As the attending officer was investigating the accident, many reports began to pile into the police station. The Frederick Police Communications department reported additional reports relating to other hit and run accidents involving an Oldsmobile mini-van similar to the one Ms. Mercer was operating.

After further investigation into the additional reports in the Carrollton Drive area, there was plenty of evidence pointing to the fact that Ms. Mercer was also involved in the four other hit and run accidents in addition to the original crash under investigation by OFC Hannger.

The accused and deliberated Ms. Mercer was taken to Washington County General Hospital. According to reports, her diminished mental capacity was due to her body being under the influence of alcohol in combination with many other prescription drugs, for which she did not own a prescription. The final reports determined that Ms. Mercer only struck parked vehicles, sign poles, and light poles in the Carrolton Driver and outer respective areas. Fortunately, there were no other persons or animals involved nor injured. Ms. Mercer was served with numerous citations and she remained at Washington County General Hospital for observation. She is most likely to receive severe punishments for driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and possession/use of prescription medications.

The Millbrook man, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Montgomery Police Officer Eddie McCrory in a traffic death, was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison this past Monday.

Micah J. Day, a thirty-three-year-old, was under the influence when he struck and killed the officer on July 20, 2007. When the accident occurred he was under the influence of alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana.

Circuit Court Judge Truman Hobbs Jr. sentenced Micah Day to 35 years imprisonment for the reckless murder and five years for leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, which is related to another wreck he had that night. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Day, who admitted in court Monday that he had a drinking problem, had been convicted of DUI three times within the past five years. He asked for forgiveness and leniency on Monday, but has not earned either according to the victim’s father, Robert H. McCrory.

“I think he’s more sorry for being in the situation he’s in than for taking my son’s life,” McCrory said.

Eddie McCrory, was a new member of the Montgomery Police department and finishing his first year. On the night of his death he had just completed a shift for the evening and was heading home in his personal pickup. At about 11 p.m., he was driving west on Old Selma Road, just one mile away from his home where the 24-year-old lived with his parents.

Day was driving north on Ashley Road, just minutes after leaving the scene of an accident near the intersection of West Boulevard and Hayneville Road. At the first accident, Day rear-ended a vehicle, but the driver saw Day and took precaution by pulling over to the side of the road. When approaching McCory, Day ran the red light and hit McCrory’s truck, causing it to hit a utility pole. McCrory still was wearing his uniform.

On this new, fantastic website readers can observe the DUI concentration in their states and local areas. The site, http://duimap.org offers a heat map that specifically displays concentrations of fatal Drunk Driving accidents. The clusters of dots therefore highlight the DUI fatalities of the most dangerous areas were drunken driving accidents occur. Each individual icon on the map represents the location of a DUI motor vehicle crash that resulted in one or multiple fatalities. If you pick a specific bubble and double click, it will highlight information about the specific initial accident. This information includes road name, deaths in the accident, number of drunk drivers in the accident, date and time, hit and run status, lanes, and the number of people involved. The color of the icon also represents the number of additional DUI motor vehicle crashes within one mile.

“According to the CDC, 36 people die every day due to drunk drivers. The national annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion. The drinking and driving fatality data is obtained from the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA).”

Maps such as this further provide readers with useful information and also encourage drivers to be more vigilant in particular areas. Although his may be important to recognize, we must not lose sight of the constant alertness we must maintain at all times when driving. Whether it is in a heavily urbanized area, or on a quiet country road, it only takes a split second and an inattentive driver to encounter a motor vehicle being operated by an intoxicated driver. Many accidents may be prevented if drivers are fully alert and aware of others on the road. DUI Accidents cannot only affect the lives of those involved, but also family and friends. The experience can be devastating to many.

On Wednesday January 14, 2009, a serious motor vehicle accident occurred that changed the lives of a few young men. The accident occurred near East Meadow, New York.

On Wednesday Evening, twenty-year-old Michael Sinclair, of Levittown, was driving his vehicle south on Newbridge Road. At around approximately 11:00 p.m. Michael Sinclair began to lose control of his black Infiniti. As he lost control, he hit the back of another vehicle that was stalled for a small period before attempting to make a left turn. According to officials, the vehicle is described as a black 1998 Toyota Camry. After the car was struck, the vehicle was forced back about one hundred feet down Newbridge Road. It then smashed into a pole on the western side of the street. The driver of the Camry was flown out of the vehicle where he sustained serious injuries to his body.

According to officials, Sinclair was allegedly under the influence of illegal drugs at the time of the accident. He has been arrested and charged for driving with the substance. Kyle Whitenack, 22, of Grace Lane, was riding in the passenger of Sinclair’s car and was also charged with criminal possession of a prohibited substance.

Sinclair and two of his additional passengers were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. Each of the passengers had suffered personal injuries from the car crash. They received treatment at the hospital for their injuries and shock.

After the car accident occurred, the area was marked off with yellow tape and both cars received serious damages. The front of the Toyota was completely smashed with many dents. The entire body of the Infiniti vehicle was torn apart and parts of the vehicle flew off from the collision.

A former major leaguer was arrested and jailed Friday after a judge revoked his bond. Jim Leyrtiz was arrested for violating his pretrial release on a DUI manslaughter charge, authorities said. Prosecutors filed a motion earlier that week to attempt to jail him as he awaited trial in Fort Lauderdale.

Authorities installed a breath alcohol ignition interlock device into Leyritz’s car. As procedure with the system, he has to blow into the device before starting the car and periodically while driving. The results are then recorded and showed that he consumed alcohol four times since the device was installed in April 2008. Under the terms of his release, he is not permitted to drink any alcohol and therefore violated the agreement. His trial is set for May 25th and if convicted, he will face up to 15 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and his attorney, J. David Bogenschutz, said Friday his client’s arrest stems from a misunderstanding. He filed a motion Friday afternoon seeking to have Leyritz released pending an emergency hearing.

Bogenschutz said that as part of Leyritz’s pretrial release, he initially had to submit to multiple daily alcohol tests on a home device. That order was changed in April 2008, allowing Leyritz to drive but only if the breath device was installed in his vehicle.

After the change, officers charged with monitoring Leyritz told him they would no longer be supervising him.

“So he believed at that point, because he now had a machine in his car, it was OK to drink, but that he’s just not going to be able to drink and drive because the car is going to turn off,” Bogenschutz said.

Bogenschutz said Leyritz has used the vehicle breath device some 4,000 times with only four registered alcohol incidents. He said that since the latest incident in January, authorities have made it clear to Leyritz that he is still not allowed to consume any alcohol — and Leyritz hasn’t.

“He really shouldn’t be held responsible,” Bogenschutz said. “It’s a little disturbing.”

Earlier this week, a 25-year-old man was charged with drinking and driving and leaving the scene of an accident after striking six cars.

According to the Bartlett Police, a distress call was made reporting a hit-and-run accident. The actual crash occurred at the intersection of Illinois Route 59 and Army Trail Road at about 11:40 p.m. this past Saturday.

The reported witnesses stated to police that there was a black car involved in the accident whose driver fled the scene by foot, according to official reports.

The convicted driver, Antonio Cruz, a 25-year-old of West Chicago, was recklessly driving a 1995 Nissan Maxima southbound on Route 59. He was trying to maneuver in between vehicles stopped in the outside and inside lanes of traffic when he struck five cars.

After fleeing the scene, Antonio Cruz was caught a short distance from the crash, police said. He suffered minor injuries as a result of the crash and was taken to a local hospital. There were no other injuries reported.

Cruz was charged with felony aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a suspended license, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. He also was cited for operating an uninsured motor vehicle and failure to reduce speed to avoid and accident, police said.

Cruz is currently being held at the DuPage County Jail in Wheaton where he is waiting to hear a posted bail amount.

DUI Foundation strongly supports the advocacy of knowledge about driving under the influence. We would also like to reinforce the ideal that “a single drunk driving accident can permanently have a negative impact on you, passengers in your vehicle, and anyone else involved in the disaster (drivers and passengers in other automobiles and even pedestrians).”

The arrests of high-profile celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and Lindsey Lohan have led researchers to launch a study pertaining to DUI crashes and young female drivers.

The increase in DUI accidents for this demographic, is largely attributed to the marketing tactics of the alcohol industry and more women driving more miles.

According to his study, the number of young female drivers involved in serious substance-related crashes —- including those in San Diego County —- has risen steeply in California since 1998. Bloch said that in San Diego County, intoxicated female drivers between ages 21 and 24 saw the largest increase in fatal and injury crashes —- 110 crashes in 2007, up from 49 in 1998, a 124 percent increase. San Diego County women between ages 18 and 20 were involved in 100 such crashes, double the number in 1998, he said.


“I was pretty surprised at the magnitude of the increase,” said Bloch, who used 10 years of data from the California Highway Patrol for the study.



Bloch stresses that men are still involved in a majority of substance-related crashes. Federal statistics show that males more than twice as likely to be involved in fatal crashes in comparison to females involving a BAC of 0.08 or greater. Though men may be involved in more alcohol-related crashes than women, their involvement in serious crashes is not increasing as significantly as women in certain age groups, Bloch said.

Factors contributing to the increases include a greater number of women driving, women driving more miles and women driving more aggressively, he said.



Bloch also believes that young women are being largely targeted in the alcohol industry. Fruity flavored “sweet drinks” are more exclusively marketed than in the past and the fashion in which they are advertised.

According to Susan Bower, director of the county’s Alcohol and Drug Services, for the past three fiscal years, women ages 18 to 29 have accounted for approximately half of all enrolled women in the county, Bower said. 
In 2004, women accounted for 20 percent of OHS clients, said director of operations Teri Kerns. by 2008, 29 percent of its clients were women, Kerns said.
”In just four years, it went up almost 10 percent,” she said.

Kerns said education can play a lead role in reducing impaired driving among young women and other drivers.


According to Salt Lake City officials, this past Friday a bill has been advanced out of a Senate committee that may affect drivers’ licenses’. If passed through the legislature, the bill would allow some citizens who are prohibited from driving because of convictions for driving under the influence to receive “restricted” licenses that would lawfully allow them to drive to work or school.

Senator Lyle HIllyard, R-Logan, claims to be responsible for the proposed bill, SB147. He says he knew of a constituent who as a young male struggled with substance abuse and had his license revoked several times. He had since cleaned up and had been clean for at least five years. Unfortunately, this young man has been forced to rely on his co-workers to get to work in order to abide by the conditions of revocation of his license.

While it would be years before the offender could have a regular driver’s license again, Hillyard told the Senate Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee Friday that he wanted to help people like that young man have an ability to drive to work and school by changing the law to allow them to have restricted licenses.

Officially, the Senate Bill 147 states drivers whom have had their licenses revoked, denied, suspended or disqualified for at least three years beyond the first conviction of DUI, they can receive limited driving privileges if they submit a letter from their physician stating that they’ve been clean in the past three years. They cannot violate any motor vehicle law or get in an accident while driving. If they violate any motor vehicle law or get in an accident, they wouldn’t be able to get the limited license again.

Public opinion of this senate bill is very widespread. Some have strong opinions against reckless drivers and believe they should not be able to drive for many years. Others believe it is right to give worthy individuals a second chance, especially for important activities like school and work.

In Vista, a well-known big-wave surfer has been accused of very severe charges after a night of drinking. According to authorities, the man has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of felony DUI in connection with a car crash that killed his

Milton Willis, a 52-year-old of Solana Beach, faces a $500,000 arrest warrant, says a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office. His charge is worth a sentence of up to eleven years and eight months in prison. The passenger in his vehicle, 24-year-old Bradley Dillahunty, of Laguna Niguel, died that early morning in the crash on June 6 in Del Mar. Milton Willis lost control on Coast Boulevard when he was driving Dillahunty’s Toyota Avalon at more than 65-mph in a 25-mph zone.

According to a sheriff’s sergeant said alcohol was believed to be a factor because Willis “had the odor of alcohol on him.” Local authorities have declined to release the results of Willis’ toxicology tests.

For many past years, Willis and his brother, Michael Willis, have maintained a surfing camp in Del Mar and given motivational speeches. The twins also participated in writing a book together, “Discover the Greatness in You,” and are well-known in the surfing industry.

On the night of the incident authorities said Willis picked up 24-year-old Bradley Dilliahunty at Jimmy O’s Sports Bar and Restaurant in Del Mar shortly before the 1:42 a.m. crash. Almost a half-mile north of the sports bar, Willis drove past a stop sign on Coast at 20th Street and lost control. The Avalon slid across the lane and hit a parked car and then slammed into a palm tree on the passenger side. The vehicle then spun around and hit a car in a nearby driveway.

Willis was not wearing a seatbelt and fell partly out of the rear window and has been hospitalized in critical condition. Dillahunty was wearing a seatbelt.