The law enforcement agencies throughout the Bay area enforced much more stringent policies this past Memorial holiday weekend. The California Highway Patrol cracked down on impaired drivers and urged travelers to stay safe during the weekend. The three-day holiday was met with maximum enforcement, searching not only for DUI but also for drivers not wearing seatbelts.

Over the holiday weekend, the California Highway Patrol arrested 1,450 drivers statewide for DUI during the Holiday weekend last year. This year there were 104 DUI arrests made in San Diego alone. Despite this, there was an overall decrease in intoxicated drivers, falling to 1,296. Yet, there were still 31 traffic deaths.

Memorial Day weekend can be a safe celebration for everyone. It’s about making sound decisions and planning ahead before you head out on the highway,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said in a prepared statement.

Several agencies in Contra Costa County conducted DUI checkpoints in El Cerrito between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. this past Saturday, while police in Concord, Livermore and Pittsburg will held checkpoints and maintained roving anti-DUI patrols on Saturday and Sunday evening.
San Francisco police also conducted a DUI saturation patrol via motorcycle units on Friday night and a cooperative sobriety checkpoint was  held in the city on Saturday night.

In Sonoma County, the Petaluma Police Department served as the lead agency for regional DUI enforcement efforts, and held a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint in Petaluma. DUI saturation patrols were also held on Saturday and Sunday night throughout the county.

According to the CHP, many deaths, even DUI crashes occur because not wearing a seatbelt. Many of those deaths could have been easily avoided by taking just one second to buckle a seat belt,” Farrow said. “Unfortunately, too many motorists still need a reminder, which is why our officers will be on the lookout for those who are not buckled up.”

Last week, a Mesa woman was arrested on suspicion of DUI after she crashed her car and then carried her 1-year-old daughter the rest of the way home.

According to witness accounts, the 33-year-old offender swerved off the road and struck the curb and several trees and boulders at about 4:30 a.m. The crash occurred in a neighborhood near McDowell and Power roads. After the crash, the offender took her daughter out of the back seat and walked into the gated community where she lived, the witness said.

The witness tried to get the offender to stay at the scene and informed authorities she was possibly intoxicated. She ignored the witness and went straight to her home and refused to answer the door when the police arrived. Her boyfriend met the police at the door and let them in for investigation.

Initially, the woman denied driving the car involved in the accident. She also refused to take any sobriety test, while her eyes were bloodshot and her speech was slurred. Police also reported she was swaying from side to side and that her breath smelled of alcohol.

The authorities then placed her under arrest. During the arrest she pretended to not understand in Spanish and claimed to be her sister, and then switched to speaking English. She later claimed in English that she had fallen asleep at the wheel.

After the initial investigation, the Police discovered her license had been revoked and that she had two previous DUI convictions since 2002. She was charged with three counts of aggravated DUI and one count of providing false information to a Police officer.

The Pascaguola Police Department of Mississippi is investigating a Sunday morning traffic accident. The crash happened this past Memorial weekend and captured the lives of two men and sent a third to the hospital. The two-car collision occurred at approximately 4 a.m. at the intersection of Highway 90 and Chicot road.

According to authorities, a 40-year-old Gautier man was traveling westbound on Highway 90. While driving, his BMW struck a Saturn Coupe that was trying to cross and intersection.

The emergency personnel from the Fire Department and Acadian Ambulance Service used the Jaws of Life to free the men trapped inside the Saturn. The driver and front seat passenger were both pronounced to be dead at the scene. These victims were a male and a female, ages twenty-five and thirty-three. Their time of death was pronounced to be 3:42 a.m. on U.S. 90 and Chicot Road. The back seat passenger, 21-year-old, was extracted from the vehicle and saved by the Jaws of Life and taken to Singing River Hospital. He suffered serious injuries from the impact of the crash. Reports say that none of the passengers in the vehicle were wearing a seatbelt.

According to Officers, the man driving the BMW under the influence was not injured during the collision. He is currently being detained at the Pascagoula Municipal Jail awaiting an initial appearance. He is being charged with two counts of felony DUI causing death.

Mississippi DUI or drunk driving arrests trigger two separate cases: the court case, where a DUI conviction can result in fines, jail time, mandatory alcohol education programs, and more supplementary punishments and/or educational aids; and the Department of Motor Vehicles case, where the DMV will attempt to take away the driver’s license of anyone arrested for drinking and driving or driving under the influence.

A bail was set recently at $2 million dollars to a seventeen-year-veteran Chicago Police officer who has been accused of being intoxicated behind the wheel and causing a fatal hit=and-run accident that killed a 13-year-old on the South Side of Chicago.

The 39-year-old officer was charged with aggravated driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident where death occurred, and reckless homicide.  According to the Cook County sheriff’s office spokeswoman, the officer had attended a bar not long before the crash.

The officer lives on South Wolcott Avenue and was arrested soon after his Dodge Charger drove through the intersection at 81st and Ashland Avenue. The boy was killed approximately around 1:28 a.m. this past Friday.

According to reports, the young boy had snuck out of his home and was riding his bicycle with some friends. The boy had been riding

Booker had snuck out of his home and was riding his bicycle with friends, according to his family. According to witness accounts the young boy was riding with his friend down Ashland when the officer was traveling north in the southbound lane. The officer then went through the intersection at high speeds and hit the boy then fled the scene. He was arrested minutes later after two on duty officers saw the car about five blocks before going the wrong way down a one way street. They also noticed the vehicle had damage to the bumper and windshield.

The spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department said the officers discovered an open bottle of beer in the car and conducted a field sobriety test on the officer at the scene, though the results of the test were not released at the time. In addition to the slew of criminal charges, the Chicago Police Department also charged the deranged officer with a citation for driving the wrong way down a one-way street and for possessing an open container.

A 25-year- old Plainsboro man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for the death of an 88-year-old Monroe woman in an DUI Crash caused in October 2007.

According to prosecutors, the offender had a .161 blood-alcohol level and was driving 72 mph in a 45-mph zone when he caused the crash on Dey Road in Plainsboto. The offender pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault, two counts of assault by auto, driving while intoxicated and other charges. He faced about 50 years in prison had he been convicted at trial.

The offender injured a woman of Monroe and her caretaker, then 57. One of the victims died of her injuries in December 2007.

The two women were heading to the physician’s office in a 2000 Toyota Camry taxi driven for South River-based Kelly’s Car Service. The offender was initially involved in a minor accident on Dey Road near Woodland Drive in which his eastbound 2000 Mitsubishi Gallant rear-ended a 2006 Honda Pilot.

The offender left the scene of the first accident, speeding down Dey Road with the hood of his car up. He lost control of the Mitsubishi and veered into oncoming traffic.

“He was driving both blind and blind drunk,” Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch told Judge Barbara Stolte in Superior Court, New Brunswick, on Tuesday.

The passenger side of the Mitsubishi slammed into the front of the westbound taxi. Grochowski’s car overturned and landed on its side.

Neither the offender nor the three passengers in his car were seriously injured. The taxi driver was treated and released. One of the female victims suffered multiple fractures and both lungs were punctured, Sewitch said.

“There’s no words, no sorries, no forgive-me’s that will take back the pain I caused,” the offender said. “I’m no punk, I’m no thug and would never willingly take another person’s life.”

According to DUI Defense Attorneys in Washington, the installation of an ignition interlock device in a driver’s car may increase the likelihood of accidents. Under Washington State DUI laws, the ignition interlock device is required to be installed if a driver’s license is suspended due to a DUI arrest or conviction within the state.

To refresh, the ignition interlock device is installed with the wiring in a car to prevent the car from starting. However, it is not commonly known that Washington State’s DUI law also required a “rolling retest” after the vehicle has been started. In this process, when the car is in motion, the ignition interlock signals the driver to blow into the device:

“WAC 2-4-50-110 (7) Each device shall require the operator of the vehicle to submit to a retest within ten minutes of starting the vehicle. Retesting shall continue at intervals not to exceed sixty minutes after the first retest. The device shall be equipped with a method of immediately notifying peace officers if the required retest(s) above is not performed, or if the result of the retest exceeds the lower of .025 BAC or the alcohol concentration as prescribed by the originating court. Examples of acceptable forms of notification are repeated honking of the vehicle’s horn, repeated flashing of the vehicle’s headlamps, or the wailing of a small siren. Such notification may be disabled only by switching the engine off, or by the achievement of a retest at a level the lower of .025 BAC or the maximum allowable alcohol concentration as set by the originating court.”

These dangers from the rolling retest have been frequently documented because it causes a distraction while driving, similar to cell phones. Use of cell phone while operating a motor vehicle is not only dangerous, but also illegal. So isn’t the rolling retest of the interlock device just as dangerous? Lawmakers across the country should further investigate such claims.

The judge in the case involving the death of a four-year-old girl has set the bond for $1 million dollars. The man who is accused of running a red light and causing a fatal crash that killed the little girl, has plead not guilty in his Friday court appearance at Douglas County Corrections.

“We just want everyone to know that my client is devastated by this situation,” says the offender’s attorney Joseph Lopez Wilson. “It’s very unfortunate. He is not a father but has young family members. and just totally devastated by it.”

He is charged for driving under suspension and if found guilty will serve a maximum sentence of five years.

“The bond was set was set at one-million dollars. I thought it was excessive for this type of case,” says Wilson. “But I think the judge felt some pressure because of the media and the little girl dying. I’d probably do the same if I was in the judge’s position. You can’t blame him for that.”

The offender has had a hold placed on him by Federal Authorities because he is an illegal immigrant. There’s no expiration date to the immigration hold.

His driver’s license had been suspended in 2002 after his third conviction on DUI.

State authorities explained to Channel 6 News that when the offender was first issued a license in 1998, the system of checking social security numbers against a Federal data base was not as reliable as it is today. In 2003, the offender was turned away at the DMV because of his 15-year license suspension and because he couldn’t provide proper documentation to prove who he said he was.

The offender was driving a brother-in-law’s pickup. It’s possible the brother-in-law who owns the pickup could face charges if he knowingly allowed a suspended or unlicensed driver to use the vehicle. A few cases are filed every year in Omaha as a way for investigators to try to keep suspended drivers from having access to a vehicle.

According to sources, at any given time, there are 100,000 drivers in Nebraska who have suspended licenses.

An accident occurred late Friday night at 9:39 p.m. as a motorcyclist was heading westbound on S.C. 544. According to Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Sonny Collins, a separate vehicle pulled out from the Coastal Villas Apartment Complex on S.C. 544 near West Cox Ferry Road.

A 46-year-old male died at the scene of the crash, according to Horry Country Deputy Coroner Chris Burroughs. An autopsy conducted this afternoon revealed the cause of death was due to the blunt force of the trauma received during the accident, according to the Burroughs.

“He didn’t ride that much, he didn’t do a lot of riding,” said the victim’s brother. “He liked to play golf, he liked NASCAR, he liked college football - Clemson [University] all the way.” The 59-year-old said he shared his 40-year love for motorcycles with his younger brother. “He hadn’t been into it quite as long as me, but he loved it.”

The second crash occurred 30 minutes later. involving four vehicles on S.C. 544 in front of the Boardwalk, Collins said.

A vehicle driving eastbound on S.C. 544 crossed the centerline and struck two motorcyclists and then hit a truck, all of which were traveling westbound on S.C. 544, he said. A 47-year-old of Centereach, N.Y., died at the scene of the crash, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge said. The autopsy revealed massive trauma to the lower extremities.

The driver of the vehicle is charged with felony DUI involving death and is being held at J. Reuben Long Detention Center, according to Collins. The 60-year-old Myrtle Beach woman was the only driver and the two motorcyclists were reported not wearing helmets. Under South Carolina law, no helmet is required because they were outside the Myrtle Beach city limits.

Four people were seriously injured in a Bakersfield car collision that was caused by a driver influenced by drugs. According to the Bakersfield Californian, two 27-year-olds, a 22-year-old, a 56-year-old, and a 26-year-old were injured in a five car crash. Many others- including a 40-year-old, a 68-year-old, a 21-year-old, and a 47-year-old were fortunate to escape the accident without injury in the rear-end accident.

The offender was later arrested for suspicion of a felony charge of causing personal injury while driver under the influence of drugs. He may also face charge for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

The crash occurred when the offender, who was driving a Honda Accord at 70 mph east on Niles Street, rear-ended a car stopped at a red light at Descanso Street. The collision caused a chain reaction crash involving several individuals. The newspaper found online court records, which indicate that the offender had several recent brushes with the law including prior jail time for assault, drug possession and a DUI.

According to statistics, California leads the nation in DUI arrests. According to the FBI, there were 177,405 California DUI arrests in 2004. Of these almost 1,500 of the DUI arrests were under the age of 18.

If you have recently been arrested for driving under the influence in California, it is strongly recommended you seek the counsel of a qualified DUI attorney in your local area. Information on the Internet is no substitute for professional legal representation.

People arrested for a California DUI face two separate processes - a California Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) procedure that determines whether or not the California Drivers License is suspended or restricted, and a court case that can lead to a variety of DUI penalties.

A man was arrested and taken into the custody of the law after a brief, high-speed chase along Highway 29.
The young 25-year-old man of Clearlake was arrested at approximately 1 a.m. after he tried to escape the California Highway Patrol. According to CHP officer Josh Dye, the officer was offering a traffic stop when the offender speed off.  CHP Officer Robert Hearn was driving southbound on Highway 29 when he stopped the offender’s vehicle south of Kit’s Corner at about 12:30 a.m., Dye explained.
The driver then allegedly took off, heading south on Highway 29 at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour with Hearn in pursuit, said Dye.

According to Dye, other CHP units went out to place a spike strip on the highway south of Kelseyville. However, the DUI driver turned off into Kelseyville before reaching the spike strip and, at a lower speed, made his way to an apartment complex on Gaddy Lane. Hearn quickly subdued the driver who Dye said had been alone in the car. The chase was over before sheriff’s deputies dispatched as backup could get there.

The offender was officially booked into the Lake County Jail on charges of obstructing or resisting a peace officer, evading a peace officer and driving without a license, and a no-bail immigration hold.

The Office of Traffic Safety, California Highway Patrol, and local law enforcement want everyone to drive safely and responsibly.  If you see a drunk driver on the road, call 911. The public can use the emergency number to report and help the CHP identify drunk drivers before it is too late.

If all drivers stay alert and care for themselves and others than maybe one day the roads can be as safe as they are able to be. Always be cautious when driving, especially at night when the roads are dark.