Philadelphia-area police departments plan to pay officers overtime and set up sobriety checkpoints during the three-day Labor Day weekend, according KYW Newsradio. The beefed-up DUI patrols will be paid for through grants from Penndot.
Along with Memorial Day weekend and July 4, the Labor Day holiday typically keeps cops and Philadelphia DUI lawyers plenty busy.
A 25-year veteran Delaware prosecutor now is on the receiving end of criminal charges after he was arrested by Doylestown Township police on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to the Delaware News Journal.
Deputy Attorney General Steven Wood was stopped after police spotted his silver SUV weaving in the southbound lane of Easton Road. The arresting officer said he smelled alcohol on the defendant's breath and that he slurred his words, failed a field sobriety test and admitted that he was drinking at a nearby bar.
Delaware County school bus driver Christine Rogers was arrested last week and charged with a DUI, ABC Philadelphia reported. Police say her blood-alcohol concentration was 18 times the legal limit for school bus drivers, recorded at .374 percent.
While the legal BAC limit for most Pennsylvania drivers is .08 percent, bus drivers are held to the much lower threshold of .02 percent.
Even though she has yet to be convicted of the crime, as a Philadelphia DUI lawyer would be the first to remind us, Christine Rogers was immediately fired. She drove for the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District for 10 years.
In news that will surely grab the attention of PA DUI lawyers, a woman faced PA DUI charges early this morning after she allegedly crashed her car into a utility pole in the neighborhood of Drexel Hill near Township Line and Dermond roads at around 4:00 in the morning. The Delaware County Daily Times reports that Ms. Erin Scanlon, 28, was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance and reckless driving.
Ms. Scanlon allegedly was following another vehicle very closely when she went into the left lane of the Township Line and swerved into a pole. The car, a Toyota, then hit the pole and flipped onto its side. Shortly after that, both the pole and car were set on fire. The accident and fire caused a large traffic jam that took a few hours to clear. She was the only occupant in the vehicle.
Fortunately, the accident and fire did not hurt or injure anyone. The Delaware County Daily Times quotes police Superintendent Michael Chitwood as saying, "Initially she was trapped and was able to get herself out of the car. She's lucky she didn't kill anybody."
It looks like PA DUI lawyers can expect to be busy over the upcoming three day weekend. According to the Wayne Independent, Pennsylvania State police will have PA DUI checkpoints throughout all of Wayne County during Memorial Day weekend.
The state troopers will also be driving in patrols in order to ensure that the public is safe from drunk drivers that may be out on Pennsylvania highways during the holiday weekend.
Both the PA DUI checkpoints and patrols will have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to enforcing the law. This means that if you get pulled over for a possible DUI, you may need to have your Pennsylvania DUI attorney on speed dial.
However, make sure that you know your rights during a DUI checkpoint. While every driver has the right to refuse to take any chemical tests during a DUI checkpoint, Pennsylvania has an implied consent law. This means that drivers are required to submit to chemical testing if they are suspected of a DUI. If they refuse to a chemical test, the state may allow for mandatory suspension of their drivers' license, usually for six months to a year.
Remember Thomas Senavitis? We've covered his DUI story on this blog.
Thomas Senavitis was the small-town man; the self-proclaimed "nobody" who was being held responsible for the DUI death of a beloved Pennsylvania politician.
As mentioned earlier this week on this blog, there were a record number of arrests for the 2009 year in Pennsylvania.
State troopers arrested as many as 16,900 people for driving under the influence in 2009. Monroe County and Pike County felt the bite. More notably, the Swiftwater barracks, which largely spans Monroe County, had the most noticeable increase in arrests, when compared to all other stations in Pennsylvania. The percentage increase was 75 percent, from 262 arrests in 2008 to a whopping 461 arrests in 2009.
I've talked over and over again on DUI defense and how difficult it can be for your Pa DUI lawyer to defend a client when the client goes above and beyond the crime.
I'm talking about those cases where someone is arrested for a DUI and then decides to add salt to the wound. Perhaps the offender tries to hit the officer. Perhaps the offender tries to flee the scene. Or perhaps the offender creates a public spectacle.
This article raises some interesting questions for Pa DUI lawyers.
For instance, could a rise in DUI arrests somehow relate to lower drunk driving mortality rates?
It seems that such a correlation could be made by some Pa DUI attorneys.
Avoid bad driving habits!
That's the message from Pa DUI lawyers and local students alike.
PennDOT released the winning names of its second annual "Drive Safe PA" radio public service announcement contest. The names were released on Wednesday as part of a campaign to curb distracted driving, which is a part of National Youth Traffic Safety Month.
