Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Our DUI Lawyers Orange County have learned that the “Avoid the 12” Orange County DUI Campaign is going to be very active in Orange County, CA, this Superbowl Weekend.
Law Enforcement joins with the national “Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk” message from the National Football League (NFL), the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) Coalition.  The “Avoid the 12” DUI Task Force will be deploying special roving DUI patrols on Sunday, February 5th in several communities throughout the area looking to stop and arrest drivers who are impaired by alcohol or drugs. These DUI patrols, along with regularly scheduled patrol officers, are looking for signs of an intoxicated driver behind the wheel.

“We want everyone to make the right decision on Super Bowl Sunday,” said Chris Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Having a designated sober driver should be an obvious call in everyone’s playbook. Making sure designated sober drivers know how much we appreciate their responsible decision is what will make this year’s celebration extra special – and extra safe.”

If you are hosting a Super Bowl Party:
• Make sure all of your guests designate their sober drivers before kickoff or help arrange ridesharing with other sober drivers
• Serve plenty of food
• Offer a variety of non-alcoholic choices like non-alcohol beers, soft drinks, juice, and water
• Serve one drink at a time and serve measured drinks
• Determine ahead of time when you’ll stop serving alcohol, such as one hour before the end of the party or at the end of the third quarter of the game (just like NFL stadiums) and begin serving coffee and dessert

If you are attending a Super Bowl party or watching at a sports bar or restaurant:
• Designate a sober driver before the party begins.
• Avoid drinking too much alcohol too fast. Pace yourself—eat enough food, take breaks and alternate with non-alcoholic drinks.
• Take appropriate steps to prevent anyone from driving while impaired. Remember, “Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk.”
• Always buckle up – it’s your best defense on the road

Enjoy the game. And always, if you have questions for our Orange County DUI Lawyers, contact me at (877) 568-2977.

Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Our Newport Beach DUI lawyers

Image via Wikipedia

have learned that the city of Costa Mesa has received a state grant for DUI enforcement.  The grant activities will specifically target DUI offenders, Motorcycle Safety, drivers with suspended or revoked licenses, red light running, speeding, and seatbelt violations. This will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, special enforcement operations, and court stings where DUI offenders with suspended or revoked licenses get behind the wheel after leaving court.

“Thanks to the dedicated hard work of agencies like the Costa Mesa Police Department, California has the fewest traffic fatalities since 1944,” said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy. “While this is good news, we know that only by keeping the pressure on through enforcement and public awareness can we hope to sustain these declines and save lives.”

DUI/Drivers License Checkpoints are a key component of the grant. These highly visible, widely publicized events are meant to deter impaired driving, not to increase arrests, and law enforcement admits they are not effective at getting drunk drivers arrested.  If you have any questions for a DUI Specialist Orange County, call me anytime, at (877) 568-2977.

Related articles

• Orange County DUI Checkpoint: Irvine Conducts DUI Checkpoint for the Holidays (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoint locations: San Juan Capistrano (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI arrests are up (ocduiblog.com)

Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Our DUI Lawyers in Orange County have learned that the 2011/12 Winter Holiday DUI Mobilization crackdown on intoxicated drivers has ended and resulted in a significant number of DUI arrests from Sobriety Checkpoints, Special Saturation Patrols and routine patrols in the Orange County “Avoid the 38 ” DUI Enforcement Campaign. From 12:01 AM Friday, December 16th, through midnight Sunday, January 1, 2012 officers representing 38 county law enforcement agencies have arrested 836 individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. In 2010/11, 743 DUI arrests occurred during the same time period. This year there were no DUI related fatalities during the holiday period.  Be safe out there and if you have questions, call me at (949) 682-5316.

Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Image via Wikipedia

DUI laws, being more of a political animal than a legal one, are something that California politicians tinker with each and every year, without fail.  This year, 2012, two measures signed into law alter DUI penalties in noteworthy ways.  Consider this our New Year’s Gift to you from our DUI lawyers Orange County.

AB 353 prohibits law enforcement from impouding a vehicle at a sobriety checkpoint if the driver’s only offense is not having a valid driver’se license.  Police must also make a reasonable attempt to identify the registered owner of the vehicle in order to release the vehicle to the registered owner or to a licensed driver authorized by the registered owner.

AB 520 allows a person convicted of alcohol related reckless driving (known as a “wet reckless”) to apply for a restricted license early if he or she complies with specified requirements, including the installation of an ignition interlock device.  If you have questions for a DUI lawyer Newport Beach, call me at (949) 682-5316.

Related articles

• Orange County DUI Checkpoint: Irvine Conducts DUI Checkpoint for the Holidays (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoint locations: San Juan Capistrano (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations: Costa Mesa (ocduiblog.com)
• Huntington Beach DUI checkpoints “not mean to increase arrests” (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Crackdown results in 255 arrests in one week (ocduiblog.com)

Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Our DUI Lawyers Orange Countyhave learned, through a press release sent to us from the Huntington Beach Police Department, that the PD believes that, even though they have a grant for DUI checkpoints, that they will not increase arrests.  As they state, “DUI/Drivers License Checkpoints are a key component of the grant. These highly visible, widely publicized events are meant to deter impaired driving, not to increase arrests.”

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles

• Orange County DUI Checkpoints: Huntington Beach, Westminster, Anaheim, Buena Park, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach. (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI arrests up this New Year’s Eve (ocduiblog.com)
• Orange County DUI Checkpoints: New Year’s Eve edition (ocduiblog.com)

Posts Tagged ‘dui lawyer’

Super Bowl 2012 DUI Checkpoints in Orange County

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Monday, April 12, 2010 | As Orange County DUI Lawyers, we get asked all the time about how effective DUI checkpoints are.  The answer is: Not Very.  For all of the effort expended by police departments on DUI checkpoints, they’re not the best way to catch drunks behind the wheel.

In 2008, just more than 5,000 drunk drivers were nabbed at 1,740 checkpoints statewide. That number represents about 2.3 percent of all California drunk driving arrests in 2008, according to statistics compiled by the state’s Office of Traffic Safety.

Meanwhile, nearly 215,000 DUI arrests were made by regular police and California Highway Patrol officers on their daily patrols, the Department of Motor Vehicles reported.

But despite these statistics, the checkpoints are here to stay. While they may not be good at catching drunk drivers, they have proven quite effective in capturing something else very important to local police agencies: federal dollars.

Roughly $14 million in federal grant money was spent statewide in 2008 on checkpoints. Orange County law enforcement agencies will receive at least $2.5 million in federal grants this fiscal year for checkpoints.

Grants cover virtually all costs for the checkpoints including overtime for officers so inspections don’t interfere with regular police work.

“If you see a check point, the chances are extremely good that that’s grant funded,” said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety which administers federal safe driving grants.

Federal grants for checkpoints jumped nationally in fiscal 2006 from $40 million the previous year to $120 million. For fiscal 2009, grant funding was $139 million, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Both Cochran and Mothers Against Drunk Driving Orange County Interim Director Mary Beth Griffith say there is clear evidence that checkpoints are a deterrent.

They point to the fact that drunk driving fatalities have decreased in recent years and say the drop is at least partly attributable to checkpoints being an effective way to educate the public about drunk driving.

Cochran cited the Office of Traffic Safety’s 2009 performance report which said alcohol-related deaths from driving accidents dropped 9.1 percent from 2007 to 2008 and, since 2005, fatalities have gone down “a staggering 20.1 percent.”

And MADD’s Griffith noted a U.S. Transportation Department report in March that said preliminary statistics show national traffic fatalities in 2009 were at their lowest level since 1954. And the rate has been steadily going down for more than three years.

Griffith said she would “like to believe it’s because more people are being arrested before they could cause a crash.”

However, when the government released the 2009 fatality numbers last month, one of the nations top auto safety watchdogs attributed the drop in fatalities primarily to the Great Recession.

“It’s a consistent pattern that the silver lining in any recession is a dip – and sometimes a significant dip – in highway deaths,” Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told the Baltimore Sun.

The government report, according to the Sun’s reporting, shows a downward trend in fatalities that increased as the national economy went into recession and Americans began driving fewer miles. The number of deaths on the nation’s roads prior to 2008 routinely surpassed 40,000.

Nonetheless, Cochran insists that “checkpoints are the best deterrent for DUI (driving under the influence) fatalities.”

One reason for their success, he said, is that they reach both drinkers and non-drinkers, helping educate both groups about the dangers of drinking and driving and, hopefully, inspiring non-drinking family and friends to get behind the wheel when they’re with someone who has been drinking.

“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Stop!” Shouts a voice from the dark as officers begin their inspection at a recent checkpoint in Fullerton.

The police check for a valid driver’s license and then chat with (and sniff) drivers to see if they seem impaired by alcohol or drugs. Officers also give each driver they stop anti-drinking and driving literature from MADD.

But a recent investigation by the investigative news website California Watch revealed that police agencies do more than just sniff for booze and hand out pamphlets at checkpoints.

They also impounded the cars of unlicensed drivers whether they’ve been drinking or not. And the agencies make big money doing it, according to California Watch’s reporting. The website also found that minority motorists — and often illegal immigrants — were often the most likely to have their cars impounded.

Even with such revelations, Cochran said federal dollars for the checkpoints will keep coming. “It’s a trend more than a spike,” he said.