Recently in DUI in the News Category

You may be ready for some football this Sunday, but make sure you’re also ready for the DUI task forces protecting the streets from potential drunk drivers.

Super Bowl Sunday, one of the year’s biggest sports events in the country, is also reportedly one of the nation’s most dangerous impaired driving days, according to a press release from car insurance company GEICO.

During the 2010 Super Bowl Sunday, 48 percent of traffic fatalities reportedly were caused by alcohol impairment, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

In addition to the typical penalties for a DUI - such as jail time, fines and license suspension - a DUI conviction could negatively impact your employment.

Take, for example, former Phoenix police sergeant John Flanagan. Flanagan was arrested for felony DUI charges in March and fired from his job in August. Now, he could lose his police certification entirely because of his DUI conviction, reports The Arizona Republic.

Sean Bradlee Fain, co-owner of the Central Hockey League’s Arizona Sundogs and Fain Signature Group principal, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence this past Thursday, reports The Daily Courier.

Prescott Valley police officers said they were responding to a report of an impaired driver when they found Fain in a pickup truck with a flat tire near Highway 89A around midnight early Thursday morning.

A woman facing 119 years in prison for allegedly causing a serious car crash while driving under the influence of methamphetamines agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, reports The Daily Courier.

Thirty-one-year-old Jessica Mae Wayas was accused of driving head-on into the truck of a 70-year-old man while under the influence of meth in March 2010. Shockingly, her two children, ages 5 and 6, were also in the car with her at the time and were injured in the accident.

Wayas’ problem with meth is one of the worst the prosecution and the judge have seen, according to The Courier.

A suspected Tucson DUI crash left one woman dead and two people injured, reports the Associated Press.

A 41-year-old, unidentified man allegedly drove his Dodge Charger head-on into a Nissan carrying 46-year-old Elizabeth G. Acuna and an unidentified driver, according to Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Matt Ronstadt.

Acuna was killed in the collision, which occurred on Benson Highway, and a 26-year-old woman driving the Nissan suffered serious injuries.

Just a couple of months after anti-drunk driving advocacy organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving gave Arizona its highest rating for DUI enforcement, another reviewing agency says one its one of the worst states in the nation for driver safety laws.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety claim that only South Dakota is worse than the Grand Canyon State when it comes to the number of state driving laws in effect, reports KTAR.com.

What could account for the extreme discrepancy?

Instead of driving with a license, a Mesa man allegedly decided it was better to drive early Sunday morning with an open container of alcohol in his car and a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit, reports The Arizona Republic.

Twenty-eight-year-old Eden Lopez-Flores was pulled over by Mesa police at two in the morning on Sunday for a routine traffic stop when officers noticed tell-tale signs of intoxication.

Lopez-Flores reportedly admitted to drinking a few cans of Bud Light before driving, and officers found an open 12 ounce can from the "King of Beers" in his car.

It was a banner year for the Grand Canyon state, home of some of the strictest DUI laws in the nation. Looking back at some of the top Phoenix DUI stories of 2011, we've learned some tried and true lessons for driving safely down the streets of Arizona. Here are our top five:

As the numbers slowly trickle in regarding the statewide holiday DUI crackdown, preliminary figures are showing impressive enforcement numbers.

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety stated on Sunday that approximately 4,000 suspected drunk drivers have been arrested in the Grand Canyon State since the crackdown began on Nov. 24, reports KPHO.

Breaking the number of arrests down further, approximately 1,085 drivers were arrested for extreme DUIs and 385 people had been arrested for aggravated DUIs, according to the Office of Highway Safety’s press release.

Arizona's 2011 Holiday DUI Task Force seems like it has become a more efficient machine this season, making 12,000 more traffic stops this year than 2010 and netting 2,840 suspected drunk drivers, reports The Arizona Republic.

Perhaps their shiny, new mobile DUI processing centers have helped?

Regardless of the reason, Arizona authorities were in contact with more motorists than last year. Looking at the numbers between Nov. 24 and Dec. 24, authorities reported making 46,200 traffic stops compared to 33,395 in 2010. Out of those stops, 18,000 were arrested for non-DUI related citations such as speeding.