CA DUI Laws

On the heels of a month marked by extensive media coverage of the Orange County trial of Andrew Gallo–the San Gabriel man, who, despite having his license suspended for a prior DUI conviction, took the wheel after a night of binge drinking and killed Angeles’ rookie pitcher, Nick Adenhart, and two friends in an early morning collision–news has broken of a new law that will impact DUI repeat offenders. Starting January 1, 2012, judges will have the option of revoking an individual’s license for up to 10 years if that person has three or more convictions for driving under the influence within the past decade. The law is just one of many efforts by state legislators and officials to combat drunk driving in California.

Annually 1.5 million people are arrested for driving under the influence in this state, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). DUI repeat offenders account for one-third of those arrested. A recent study of the percentage of drivers with alcohol-related convictions in the nation’s 20 largest cities by insurance.com found that the greatest number of violators resided in San Diego, followed by San Jose in second place, Los Angeles in seventh, and San Francisco in eighth. The high incidence of convicted drivers in these cities was attributed to three factors: a higher rate of alcohol consumption among the population, “more partiers,” in general; a lack of public transportation; and effective enforcement of drinking-and-driving laws.

Over the last 30 years, numerous laws have been passed to prevent drinking and driving in the United States:

In 1984, the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act was signed into law. Under the law, states that fail to prohibit the purchase or public consumption of alcohol by an individual under the age of 21 will have 10% of Federal highway funding withheld from them. In effect, this law raised the national minimum drinking age to 21.

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sobriety checkpoints were legal under the constitution.

In 1995, the Federal Zero Tolerance Law was passed, making it illegal for individuals under 21 years old to drive with any measurable amount of blood alcohol content (BAC) in their blood. Highway safety funds would be withheld from any state failing to comply with the law by October 1, 1998.

In 2000, .08 BAC became the national illegal limit for impaired driving. Under the law, a percentage of federal highway construction funds would be withheld from any state failing to comply.

To date, 14 states have enacted laws mandating DUI first-time and repeat offenders to install ignition interlock devices in their vehicles: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. California, however, has only implemented a pilot program in four counties: Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Tulare. Drivers with the device are forced to breathe into a tube connected to a machine that measures alcohol levels; if alcohol is detected, the machine will prevent the ignition from starting. The device not only prevents those with DUI convictions from drinking and driving, it also serves as a deterrent to all drivers, as it considerably increases the cost of receiving a DUI. Legislators will consider expanding the program statewide after a 5-year evaluation.

In California-and nationwide-efforts to combat drunk driving have had an impact on the number of fatal alcohol-related accidents. Throughout the country, such accidents decreased by almost 10 percent from 13,041 in 2007 to 11, 773 in 2008. In California, there were 108 fewer fatal accidents in 2008 than in 2007, from 1,347 to 1,239. Hopefully, the fatality rate will continue to decline with the state’s increasingly aggressive DUI enforcement and harsher penalties.

Originally published here.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 is a date that Lindsay Lohan will not forget — hopefully.  Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in a drug rehab which she will immediately go to after completing her 90-day jail sentence that was handed down by the judge rendering the decision in her case.  Although Lohan reacted in shock and tears, she is no stranger to run-ins with law enforcement due to alcohol and drug abuse in the past.  Lohan’s list of legal issues is anything but stellar . . .

In February of 2005, she got sued in a personal injury case wherein Ilex Harris and Eddie Pamilton were allegedly injured in an automobile accident involving her.  In October of that same year, she crashed her vehicle again in West Hollywood, CA and wound up getting an ambulance ride to the hospital where she was treated for minor injuries.  She was 19 years old at the time.

The following year started off with a bang for Lohan as well when the magazine “Vanity Fair” published an interview they had with her in January of 2006 wherein she claimed to be suffering with bulimia.  Lohan turned around and denied it even though there were numerous quotes in the article, one of which quoted her as saying, “I was sick. Everyone was scared. And I was scared too. I had people sit me down and say, ‘You’re going to die if you don’t take care of yourself.’”

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A year later (January, 2007), she checked herself into a rehab because she “made a proactive decision” in order to address her personal health and attempt to improve it.  According to her publicist, she had been attending AA meetings for over a month at the time she entered the alcohol and drug rehab.  Ironically, 5 months later (May 2007), Lohan drove her Mercedes into a curb and was arrested for suspicion of DUI.  Additionally, the police report stated that a cocaine-like substance was found in the vehicle.

Two days after her arrest on May 28th (Memorial Day weekend), she once again checked into an alcohol and drug rehab.  On June 14th (17 days later) she crashed into a van in Beverly Hills and was accused of being drunk again according to a lawsuit that was launched in October of 2007.  A gentleman named Raymundo Ortega claimed that he had seen Lohan in the Ivy Restaurant earlier that evening consuming mixed drinks and getting drunk.

One month to the day (July 14th), Lohan checked out of the rehab center and celebrated the completion of her 45-day stay by partying with friends in a Las Vegas nightclub.  Supposedly, she remained sober and never drank with her friends.  Only 10 days later, she is once again pulled over by the police in the early morning of July 24th and was arrested on 5 different counts which included driving with a suspended license, driving under the influence, and possession of narcotics.

Lohan got sued again on August 14th and then charged with 7 counts of misdemeanor behavior stemming from the 2 prior DUI arrests that happened earlier in the year.  That December, a video played on the TV show TMZ which shows her in Italy partying with friends and drinking champagne straight out of the bottle.  In October of this past year (2009), she was handed an additional year of probation by the court for her two DUI arrests in 2007 because she failed to attend her court-ordered alcohol education classes.

This past April (2010), Lohan got fired by the producer of “The Other Side” claiming that he felt she was no longer “bankable.”  In June, the Beverly Hills court judge assigned to her case issued an arrest warrant for her and orders bail in the amount of $200,000 because she violated a court order to not consume alcoholic beverages.  Additionally, she was wearing a SCRAM alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet at the time of her violating probation.

Originally published here.