NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

There are strict laws in place for driving under the influence offenses, and penalties become more severe with each case.

Vineland resident Anderson Sotomayor has just received his fifth DUI violation in a little over a month. His first case has not gone to trial yet.

According to myfoxphilly.com, Sotomayor was pulled over after police received a call and saw Sotomayor’s vehicle “weaving in the lane of travel.” Police also said he had an open alcoholic beverage in his lap when they stopped him.

Sotomayor would not take a breathalyzer test and admitted to using Oxycodone without a prescription. He was arrested on multiple charges, and is seeing jail time this time. His bail was set at $10,000.

“We’re happy that we have a person that is a risk to the community off the streets, and that is our goal,” Vineland Police Captain Tom Ulrich said to NBC10.

The 45-year old Sotomayor has an ugly driving history. This past Saturday he was allegedly seen driving the wrong way down a one-way street, then hitting a curb and driving off the street. The judge declined to set bail. According to 6abc.com, Vineland’s municipal court administrator said drunk driving is not a crime they can set bail for because it’s considered a traffic violation.

He was charged with DUIs on April 9, 11 and 25. Sotomayor was given five summonses on April 2, when police said he swerved around a school bus as it unloaded children, ran into a stop sign, smashed into a car and left the scene of the accident.

His driving record includes two prior drunk driving convictions, and his license has been suspended 23 times. It was recently restored.

Sotomayor is an amputee, and told police he has been suffering from depression.

Article source: http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/anderson-sotomayor-of-vineland-gets-5th-dui-arrest-in-1-month-span

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press
–
11 hours ago 

DENVER (AP) — A marijuana blood limit for drivers was rejected Tuesday for a third time in Colorado, as lawmakers from both parties argued about how to fairly gauge whether someone is too stoned to get behind the wheel.

The bill would have made Colorado the third state in the nation with a blood-level limit for marijuana, much as the nation has a blood-alcohol limit of .08.

Currently, drugged-driving convictions depend on officer observations.

The Colorado Senate fell a single vote short on the bill setting a drivers’ blood standard for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The measure failed on a 17-17 tie, one vote short of the number needed to advance it.

Earlier Tuesday, the state House signed off again on the bill that would limit drivers to 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood. Sponsors talked about Colorado’s rising arrest rates for people driving under the influence of drugs, as well as data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing more drivers in fatal accidents test positive for marijuana.

“It is past time to get this done,” said Republican Rep. Mark Waller, sponsor of the bill.

However, marijuana activists and some lawmakers from both parties argued that the blood standard is an unfair measure of driver impairment. They pointed out that more than 90 percent of Colorado’s drugged-driving criminal cases already end in convictions, so they questioned whether the 5 nanogram limit would change behavior.

“I don’t think it’ll make our roads any safer,” argued Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman of Denver.

Some Republicans opposed the bill, arguing that the measure considered Tuesday should have targeted more than just marijuana use.

Opponents tried to amend the bill to exempt state-certified medical marijuana patients from the limit. The amendment failed.

“Impaired is impaired, whether you have a (medical marijuana) card or don’t have a card,” argued Republican Sen. Steve King.

After the amendment failed, the entire bill collapsed. Its fate appeared to hinge on the absence Tuesday of a lone senator — Republican Sen. Nancy Spence of the Denver suburb of Centennial.

Spence opposed the DUI measure last year, but changed course and gave the marijuana DUI a single-vote margin of victory in the Senate earlier this year. That bill didn’t clear the House, though, as that chamber was embroiled in a last-minute standoff over civil unions for same-sex couples.

The pot bill came back to lawmakers in a special legislative session. However, Spence has been out of town all week and didn’t make it to Denver for the vote. Her absence meant defeat for the bill.

While it’s already illegal to drive while impaired by drugs, states have taken different approaches to the issue. More than a dozen states, including Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Rhode Island, have a zero-tolerance policy for driving with any presence of an illegal substance, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota has the same policy but exempts marijuana.

Nevada, which is among the 16 states that allow medical marijuana, and Ohio have a 2 nanogram THC limit for driving. Pennsylvania has a 5 nanogram limit, but that’s a state Health Department guideline, which can be introduced in driving violation cases.

Voters in Washington state will consider a 5 nanogram THC driving limit this fall on a ballot measure about marijuana legalization. A legalization ballot measure pending in Colorado specifically leaves the question to lawmakers.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper added drugged driving to a list of measures he asked lawmakers to consider in the special legislative session expected to end Wednesday.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has asked all states to adopt blood-limit, drugged driving laws and set a goal of reducing drugged driving in the United States 10 percent by the year 2015. But the White House doesn’t tell states what nanogram limit to set for illegal drugs.

Law enforcement lobbyists in Colorado have vowed to keep trying to enact a pot DUI standard. Tom Raynes of the Colorado District Attorneys Council argues that even though medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, it’s not dosed like prescription drugs and is easily abused.

“Folks don’t know what they’re taking,” Raynes said. “It’s like a doctor offering a bowl of drugs and saying, ‘Reach in, take what you think you need and go ahead and drive.’ … We’ve got to get a handle on this.”

Follow Kristen Wyatt at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

• House Bill S-1005:
  http://goo.gl/uLohi

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jli4oy3CRwlMWo7TK-oG8sN83dgw?docId=0399383dd3914694bb8581e356dbc022

Article source: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120514/NEWS03/120519814/dui-offenders-hear-of-state-trooper-s-death

Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. Officers will check for proper licensing and will strive to delay motorists only momentarily. Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

“Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 9 lives and resulted in 116 injury crashes harming 182 of our friends and neighbors,” said Traffic Sergeant John Nunes.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent. Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public.

“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies. If you see a Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1.”

Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the Concord Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, targeting those who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver.

CLAYCORD NOTE: Don’t Drink Drive – Call a cab! If you need a cab, call Concord Express Taxi Cabs at 925-676-2222.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/incontracosta/2012/05/12/duidrivers-license-checkpoint-planned-next-weekend-on-monument-boulevard/

Matthew Fox can’t outfox the law.

The Lost star has been dinged with a DUI charge stemming from a boozy bust last week after being pulled over for a traffic violation in Bend, Ore., E! News has confirmed.

MORE: Matthew Fox Busted for DUI

Per the Deschutes County District Attorney’s office, Fox was officially rung up yesterday on counts of driving under the influence of intoxicants and failure to carry or present a license, both misdemeanors.

The 45-year-old actor was pulled over on May 4 shortly after 2 a.m. after failing to drive within his lane and failing to use the appropriate signal. He was subsequently taken into custody after the officer determined that he was intoxicated.

He’s set to be arraigned on June 7.

Fox, who lives in Bend with his wife and two kids, had a run-in with cops last summer after he allegedly punched a female bus driver in the groin. No criminal charges were filed, but Fox remains embroiled in a lawsuit over the 2011 incident.

PHOTOS: Mug-Shot Mania

Article source: http://www.eonline.com/news/matthew_fox_officially_charged_with_dui/315428?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

He added that at one point, the woman actually tried to get back into her vehicle.

“She was in shock,” Megana said. “When it started to burst into flames, she ran back. We were sitting there like, ‘No, no, no, we gotta get away.’”

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— Matt Stevens

Twitter.com/mattstevensLAT

Article source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/car-goes-up-in-flames-after-dui-suspect-crashes-into-poll.html