June 2010 Archives

A study found that one out of every five college students admitted to driving while drunk and another 40 percent of college students admitted that they have taken a ride from a drunk driver. The findings from the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health also showed that the tendency to drive while drunk increases once college students hit the age of 21.

HealthDay News reports that the study's participants included more than 1,250 students at a large mid-Atlantic university. Participants were interviewed once per year for four years to gauge alcohol-related traffic risk behavior.

Members of the Southeastern Arizona DUI Task Force conducted a sobriety checkpoint last Saturday along Route 80, just north of Davis Road in Sierra Vista. KVOA News reports that approximately 456 vehicles went through the checkpoint, but that only tow drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The AZ DUI checkpoints do cost the state of Arizona a great deal of money that is funded through grant money from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. DUI checkpoints will continue this year on holidays and after various community events, but Arizona DUI attorneys may argue that checkpoints are not an effective way of keeping drunk drivers off the road.

How drunk is too drunk to drive? The Arizona law draws the line at the .08 percent blood-alcohol level. Yet Phoenix DUI attorneys often argue that there are different degrees of impairment from alcohol and that impairment varies somewhat from person to person when it comes to blood-alcohol levels.

However, almost every DUI attorney would agree that a person should not be driving with a blood-alcohol level over .30. The East Valley Tribune reports that 38-year-old John McCombs Wilcox was suspected of DUI after he was in a non-injurious accident in the town of Gilbert. A preliminary BAC test showed that the man had a blood-alcohol level of .303, which is almost four times the legal limit. The Gilbert man was then arrested on suspicion of aggravated DUI.

A 2008 study by Allstate Insurance Company found that the Phoenix metro area was the 6th deadliest hotspot in the nation, amongst the country's 50 largest metro areas, for teen crashes. The study examined federal crash statistics and rate of fatal crashes involving teen drivers.

The top three deadliest hotspots for teen drivers were all Florida metros and included Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville (first to third respectively). Other top 10 deadly places for teenage drivers include Nashville, Kansas City, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Louisville.

The Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was charged with DUI last February after his Scottsdale drunk driving arrest, but CBC News now reports that the hockey star's lawyer is asking Arizona courts to throw out the charges and argues that his client's constitutional rights were violated.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Arizona DUI attorney Mark DuBiel is now doing everything that he can to prove his client's innocence by examining all the evidence in the case. Nikolai Khabibulin's lawyer reportedly plans to testify that studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. say standard field sobriety tests should not be given to certain people who would have difficulty with them sober, including people who are over 65 years of age, people with back, leg or middle-ear problems and people with high-heeled shoes.

The Prescott Daily Courier reports that officers with the Prescott Valley Police Department issued 605 citations during the May 24 through June 6, 2010 Click It or Ticket nationwide campaign, which is supposed to encourage motorists to buckle their seatbelts. However, the campaign citations in Prescott Valley indicated that officers were cracking down on more than just seatbelt use.

In the city of Prescott, officers issued a total of 459 citations but only 41 of these violations were for seatbelt violations. Officers issued 194 citations for speeding, 120 citations for non-moving traffic violations, and 97 citations for other moving violations. Officers also were surprisingly able to arrest seven people for driving under the influence.

DUI arrests among NFL football players and football fans have certainly stacked up within the past several years. USA Today reports that within one six-week span, from February to March, five pro football players were arrested for driving under the influence, including Joey Porter from the Arizona Cardinals. So now it looks like NFL officials are starting to take action by partnering with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

Representatives from MADD will now be making presentations to rookies in the NFL about the dangers of drunk driving. Fans will also be encouraged to avoid driving under the influence through MADD's promotional messages that will run during football games and through encouragement of participation in MADD's community events.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of DUI last week in Mesa after a car accident, but in this incident police were probably most surprised by the two teenage girls that were in the car with the alleged drunk driver.

According to the Arizona Republic, a Mesa Police Department spokesman did not know of what the man's relationship with the girls was. The two girls, ages 15 and 14, were riding in the car with David Cloonan Lesueur at the time of the accident. The 15-year-old girl had to be transported to the hospital.

One Arizona mother was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of two counts of aggravated DUI, but not because she was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. She was arrested for drugged driving.

The Arizona Republic reports that the 29-year-old mother named Jessica Wayas has been accused of driving under the influence of meth, which allegedly caused an accident in Skull Valley. The Yavapai County's Sheriff's Office says that when driving her vehicle, Jessica Wayas crashed into a pickup truck that was being driven by a 71-year-old man. The woman had her two children in the car, who were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.

Increased efforts of DUI enforcement across the state proved this weekend to yield a large number of drunk driving arrests. Associated Press reports that over Memorial Day weekend, Arizona's DUI task forces arrested more than 470 individuals for driving under the influence.

The DUI arrests this year were much higher than last year's Memorial Day drunk driving arrests. Statistics from Gov. Jan Brewer's office showed that there were only 291 DUI arrests during the 2009 Memorial Day weekend.

Dick Simmons was pulled over for a simple traffic violation last Sunday, but is now in a great deal of trouble after he got into a fight with Scottsdale police officers.

The 30-year-old Dick Simmons was booked on charges of excessive speed, aggravated DUI, failure to obey, resisting arrest, and two counts of aggravated assault, according to ABC News. The suspect was reportedly pulled over for speeding near 100th Street and Cactus Road , but he tried to flee his vehicle by foot when police officers were approaching him.