Articles Posted in DUI

Howard Lee, a 20-year-old from Newport Beach, was in an accident this weekend, while under the influence. Allegedly, he was speeding while under the influence of alcohol, when he got into a car accident and his SUV flipped over and trapped him in it. Paramedics were called to East Coast Highway and Bayside Drive in Newport Beach, where they worked to get him out of the car. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and taken to the hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries.

Driving under the influence is a serious charge. Driving under the influence when you are not yet 21 is an even more serious charge. Under California law, a person under 21 can get a DUI even if their blood alcohol level is at a .01%. Also, people under 21 are not allowed to refuse a blood alcohol test and have to give consent. Consequences of getting a DUI before you are 21 include fines, jail time, license suspension and probation.

Whether you live in Fullerton, Newport Beach or Mission Viejo, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced defense attorney to assist you.

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Danny Boissiere was arrested this week for a hit-and-run, a DUI and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was driving in a Ford Explorer that was stolen from Pacifica. A man called officers because Boissiere appeared to be intoxicated. Officers tried to stop the car but Boissiere accelerated to 90 miles per hour. The driver then made an abrupt turn and crashed into a near-by Jeep Wrangler. Inside the Wrangler was Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy and their 2-year-old son. The Jeep flipped over and all the passengers were injured. Boissiere kept driving until he collided into a fence. He jumped out of the car and tried to run from officers but he was immediately apprehended.

Driving a stolen vehicle, driving under the influence and a hit-and-run are all serious crimes that will come with a long prison term. Boissiere will need an experienced criminal defense attorney to assist him in fighting these charges. A good attorney would read the lab results to see if Boissiere was actually intoxicated. He would also look at road conditions to see if there was another possible cause for the accident.

Whether you live in Foothill Ranch, Stanton or Corona Del Mar, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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A Bakersfield program called “Life Interrupted Mobile Exhibit” won the Program of the Year award from The California Crime Prevention Officer’s Association this past week. The program is aimed at showing children the dangers of drinking and driving. The presentation consists of a DUI crash trailer exhibit which shows an actual car that was involved in a DUI accident and a video that tries to relay the emotions behind a DUI crash. The Life Interrupted program is taken to junior high and high schools in Bakersfield to lower the high rate of DUI fatalities. Since the programs start in 2002 to 2007, teenage fatalities went from 12 in 2002 to 1 in 2007.

Programs like this are a great way to teach kids the dangers of drinking and driving. Lecturing students is one thing, but actually showing them a car that was involved in a drunk driving accident and showing a video on the family’s reaction and the emotional toll it takes on them, is something else. Once students feel the pain of the families and see the damage, they will definitely think twice before drinking and driving. I think the next step that this program should take is to take the exhibit to college campuses. In college, the students are actually old enough to drink and the program may be even more effective at that point. Nevertheless, the program is a great way to deter driving under the influence and reduce DUI fatalities.

Whether you live in Orange, Santa Ana or Newport Beach, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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The Automobile Club of Southern California has teamed up with County of Orange Health Care Agency Alcohol and Drug Prevention Team (ADEPT) and announced the launch of the Orange County DUI Prevention Task Force. The goal of this task force will be to address DUI issues in Orange County and do what they can to prevent them. Sub committees plan on addressing issues in law enforcement, public policy, marketing and community education. Although this is the first year in 10 years that DUI’s have decreased, the task force feels that there needs to be more DUI prevention to prevent future DUI fatalities.

I think it is great that there are more DUI prevention programs emerging everyday. DUI arrests among women are on the rise, so the DUI prevention program will also target women to explain the effects of drinking and driving. I think an important factor that the program must stress is that, besides staying on your record and possibly requiring you to spend time in jail, DUI’s can cost around $10,000 each because of attorney’s fees, court fees and restitution. If the legal consequences won’t scare people, maybe the financial consequences will.

Whether you live in Santa Ana, Huntington Beach or Brea, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced Orange County DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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Matthew Craybas of Huntington Beach was driving drunk on Pacific Coast Highway on Sunday. While driving, Craybas crashed into a barrier that separates the road from the sidewalk and the whole car flipped over. His female passenger was thrown out of the car and received severe head injuries. When officers arrived, they took her to the hospital immediately since she was in critical condition. Craybas was then arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and taken to Laguna Beach jail.

Driving drunk is so dangerous because driving requires plenty of concentration and coordination. Pacific Coast Highway is known to be a long stretch of windy roads filled with pedestrians crossing and other distractions along the way. Craybas should have known better than to drive drunk and now he will face serious charges against him. Whether you live in Anaheim Hills, Mission Viejo or Fullerton, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced Orange County defense attorney right away.

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Proposed Bill AB 91 involves a new device called ignition interlock device. The Bill would require Los Angeles County, Alameda, Sacramento and Tulare to establish a pilot program that would require DUI offenders to have an ignition interlock device installed in their car as a condition of them getting their license back. This device would detect if the driver has been drinking alcohol and would not let the car start. The results would then be reported to the county, court, or DMV. The program would take into effective in 2010 and by 2015, the Legislature would evaluate the effectiveness of the program and determine if it should be permanent.

I think that this program will be very effective in reducing second and third DUI charges. Some concerns I do have, however, are if there are false positives or inaccurate results and how that would affect being charged with another DUI. For example, what if the passenger is drunk but the driver is not, but the device picks up the scent and the driver gets reported to the DMV. There would be no way of proving that the passenger was in fact drunk and not the driver. I think there will be a lot more litigation surrounding the ignition interlock device, but it will be effective in reducing DUI charges and accidents.

Whether you live in Anaheim, Orange or Mission Viejo, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you in court.

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Nancy Nevins was the lead singer of a band called Sweetwater, a band who had opened for Woodstock. They had been performing with legendary bands, making albums and making T.V. appearances. Then, in the winter of 1969, while Nevins was driving with one of her friends, an accident shut down the Glendale freeway. As everyone was breaking in front of her, a drunk driver driving 65 miles per hour, hit the car. Doctors initially thought Nevins would die because of the extent of her injuries. After she made a little bit of recovery, doctors said she would be in a coma for the rest of her life. She proved doctors wrong by coming out of the coma and becoming a fully functioning woman again. The only problem was, her vocal cords were pretty much destroyed. Her dreams of singing again were shattered.

The band disbanded and Nevins was crushed. She tried to get her singing voice back, but it was gone. She hit rock bottom and could only come up. At that moment, she realized that she was a good writer and could use that to her advantage. She became an English teacher at Glendale Community College. She has been working there for years and loves her job and it has given her the confidence to start singing again. Her voice and her style is not the same but she says she is still a success story after a tragic accident.

Driving under the influence can lead to serious consequences. This drunk driver almost killed Nevins and would have been charged with manslaughter. Luckily, Nevin pushed through and survived the accident. Whether you live in Brea, San Clemente or Orange, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you in court.

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If you are charged with a DUI or alcohol is a contributing factor in an accident you caused, the court or the DMV will likely sentence you to an alcohol program or class. These are the different types of programs:

If you get a reckless driving charge with alcohol as a contributing factor, the court will likely require you to take a 12-hour alcohol program that discusses the dangers of drinking and driving.

When you get charged with your first DUI, you will likely have to go to a three month or 30-hour program. If your blood alcohol level was very high, you will have to go to a nine month 60-hour class.

Second time offenders are sometimes given jail time along with an 18-month program. In the program there are 52 hours of group counseling, 12 hours of drug and alcohol education, six hours of community reentry monitoring, and biweekly individual interviews for the first year of the class.

Even with all of these programs, DUI’s and DUI fatalities are still high. In 2006, there were more than 31,000 alcohol related traffic injuries in California. Whether you live in San Clemente, Orange or Santa Ana, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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Between Friday night and Monday morning in Orange County, about 73 people were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Last year, there were only about 67 arrests during the same time period. Officers did a good job of patrolling the area and setting up DUI checkpoints, which prevented any DUI fatalities from occurring in Orange County. In all of California this weekend, about 10 people were killed in DUI accidents, whereas last year there were 23 deaths.

In summary then, DUI’s are going up but fatalities are going down. Although it is unfortunate that so many people still drive drunk, luckily they are not killing as many people as before. I think this has to do with people being more educated and aware of the dangers of drinking and driving as well as police officer’s heightened efforts to prevent DUI fatalities. Whether you live in Newport Beach, Tustin or Garden Grove, if you are charged with a DUI, you will need an experienced Orange County DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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Three’s Company actress Joyce DeWitt was pulled over during the July 4th weekend in El Segundo, California. Officers observed DeWitt commit a traffic violation so they pulled her over. Officers noticed she looked intoxicated and after administering field sobriety tests, they concluded that she was driving under the influence. Last week, Dewitt was charged with 2 misdemeanor charges: driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol level of above a .08%.

During long weekends or holiday weekends, many people chose to celebrate by drinking alcohol. Officers are aware of this and will be heavily patrolling the area. If you are driving drunk and get pulled over, officers will want to give you field sobriety tests. If you take them and pass them, they will let you go. If you take them and fail them, they will arrest you. If you refuse to take them, they will arrest you and ask you to do those tests or a blood test in the station. If you get pulled over for a DUI in Orange County, Los Angeles County or Riverside County, you will need an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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