A bill to provide research funding to develop passive alcohol detectors as standard equipment for all new vehicles is moving forward with 9 co-sponsors in the US Senate.
Fighting Drunk Driving By Stopping Drinking
A New Mexico company is hoping to stop drunk drivers by stopping alcohol sales to anyone convicted of a DWI. [Read more…]
How Does a DUI/DWI Affect my Car Insurance?
Note: The Following is a guest post from CarInsuranceComparison.com
There are many monetary and lifestyle changes in store for anyone convicted of a DUI/DWI. Second to legal issues, the first question is usually related to car insurance. Most drivers want to know how their car insurance is going to be affected by their DUI/DWI. That can be a difficult question to answer, as it will vary based on state law, prior driving record, and the car insurance company policy. [Read more…]
DWI Laws in SD – Tough, not Adversarial
South Dakota has some of the toughest drunk driving laws in the country, particularly for multiple offenders. If you are convicted of a 2nd offense DWI, in addition to license loss and fines, you will be required to abstain from consuming any alcohol for a 3 month period.
The program is South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Project, and according to news sources, it has helped keep the drunk driving recidivism rate at half of that of those in other states. [Read more…]
Drunk Driving Campaigns – Public Safely or Hype?
As we head into another holiday weekend, there is an aggressive media campaign to prevent drunk driving and emphasize aggressive enforcement efforts. But do these efforts significantly reduce incidents of drunk driving? Are they an effective way to promote public safely? [Read more…]
Alcohol Detecting Sensors to Be Standard in All Cars Within 10 Years?
A bill to study alcohol sensing devices as standard equipment in vehicles is being supported by a number of congressmen and senators. A proposed amendment to the 2010 Motor Vehicle Safety Act, would calls for funding of $40 million over the next five years to develop alcohol detection sensors. These sensors could be in the form of sensors in the steering wheel that measure alcohol by skin contact, and visible light to measure BAC through spectroscopy.
So many questions remain about these alcohol sensing systems. Will they become mandatory equipment, like air bags? That is the goal of organizations like MADD. If so, exactly what threshold will be a violation? .08% BAC, legal limit? Or lower? Most ignition interlock devices are set to .02% BAC, or essentially any detectable amount of alcohol. Will it make driving after 1 drink illegal? What will be the consequences of triggering a lockout on these devices?
According to The Hill, MADD’s position is that the alcohol sensing devices are “passive, unobtrusive, reliable, accurate.”
How can these systems be considered reliable and accurate of they haven’t even been fully developed and tested?
MADD has a goal to completely eliminate drunk driving, something that we can all support. But these mandatory monitoring systems that treat every driver like a criminal go way to far.
Ohio DUI Database for Multiple Offenders
Ohio now lists “habitual offenders” with 5 or more DUI (OVI) arrests on a public state database. Is the purpose of this to warn the public, create a shaming disincentive, or simple keep the flow of public information?
The fact is, it is unfair to compare very old drunk driving charges to more recent ones. Old drunk driving arrests were treated differently. In many cases the person plead guilty, paid a fine, and that was that. Especially before the social stigma of drunk driving took hold, and MADD become a strong national organization, drunk driving was not considered a huge problem. Yet now, decades old convictions carry the same weight as current ones, for penalty purposes, ignition interlock device requirements, and online public records.
In any case, that the genie is out of the bottom on public records on the internet. Whether states release the data themselves as Ohio is doing, and Connecticut also does is a minor point. The information is considered public data, and is available to anyone who knows where to find it.
Data aggregators advertise background checks on tv, and sell this information online cheaply. Online background checks are now a booming business.
But this reality has real consequences for people who’ve made a mistake, that is suddenly much harder to live down then they may have ever realized.
Related info:
Ohio OVI Laws
Drowsy Driving
A good article in the cape cod times on the dangers of drowsy driving. The article cites statistics from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration that shows that drowsy driving is a factor in over 1500 road fatalities and 100,000 accidents a year.
Yet in most cases there is no criminal penalty for knowingly driving when overtired. The only state law on the books is Maggie’s Law in New Jersey. This law makes it a criminal offense to knowingly drive when fatigued. For the purposes of the law, fatigued is defined as having slept in the previous 24 hours.
The penalties can be similar to that of reckless driving, or worse. If there was an injury or death as a result of the driving, you could be charged with vehicular homicide.
Legislatures are slowing “waking up” to the fact that other behaviors and conditions behind the wheel are as dangerous or even more dangerous than drunk driving. There are a host of distracted driving circumstances that include texting, eating, applying makeup, or anything that diverts your attention from the road.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal in Anonymous DUI Tip Case
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts thinks states that don’t allow police to stop drivers based on anonymous tips are endangering the public, but the court as a whole did not agree to hear a case that would have challenged some lower court rulings on this matter. [Read more…]
Melendez-Diaz in Michigan DUI Cases
A Michigan DUI attorney presents an interesting and highly technical legal argument in fighting DUI cases in Michigan. [Read more…]
