DUI stories have been in the news a lot recently - just had a friend who is facing the judge for his 2nd DUI explain how he might actually get house arrest instead of going to tent city.
I always thought facing tent city was a pretty big deterrent. Especially in the summer-time when the extreme heat in AZ would have inmates facing over 100 degree heat at night - not to mention the rats and bugs!
But I guess what they are looking at is the cost savings of house arrest. The program is aimed to reduce the expense of placing non-violent DUI offenders in jail; the city of Scottsdale says it could save up to $1 million each year by using house arrest alternatives. In addition, the program aims to allow offenders to keep their current jobs which would be surrendered in a longer jail stay. The house arrest option would not be presented to violent offenders or those without employment. Any offender with a history of domestic abuse charges would also be ineligible. According to reports, this means only about 50 percent of all offenders would be eligible.
Another news item I ran into was a Real Housewives of New York, Sonja Morgan, getting arrested for a DUI. She is a wealthy housewife for God's sake! Doesn't she have enough money for a Towncar or limo so she can ride safely?? She was the wife of J.P. Morgan's great-grandson. I'm sure the J.P. Morgan family still has money.
Why don't people learn that a great way to avoid all these legal troubles is to just plan your night in advance and book your AZ sedan service. Or leave you car at the restaurant or club and call us for a ride home!
This is so powerful - watch this video!! At first I thought there was too much emphasis on the accidents and gore and less about the drinking. But then I thought again - people know how to have fun drinking. People know too much about having fun drinking without thinking about the consequences.
Please be safe this holiday season!
Are you driving down the road with a binge drinker? Betcha that you are - you actually have a 1 in 10 chance of driving on the road with somebody who has just consumed 5 or more drinks.
Let me repeat that - you have a 1 in 10 chance you are driving down the road with somebody who has had 5 or more more drinks! Amazing. About 50% of the binge and drive group have just come from drinking at the bar, restaurant or club. About 25% of those people actually had 10 or more drinks and then got behind the wheel!
Binge drinking is often associated with college kids - but in reality it crosses all age groups - there is actually a greater chance the binge drinker is 55 or older. Old enough to know better. Old enough to have the money to pay for a taxi or Phoenix limousine.
It just seems like people won't learn. The economy is bad and people are downsizing and reducing frivolous expenses. So now instead of getting a Phoenix limo they drink and drive. I'm sure a lot of people spent some times behind bars this last Halloween - instead of trick or treating or having fun - they got caught and will be paying for the consequences for a long time to come - financially and emotionally.
Local law enforcement is looking for additional ways to earn revenue for the State (hence the traffic cameras everywhere). DUIs cost a lot of money - I'm sure they are a revenue generator for the State of AZ. . . . so I don't think that enforcement is going to be reduced with budget cuts.
And it's not just because it is against the law and can be expensive if you are caught drinking and driving. It is wrong because you can hurt somebody.
Binging and driving - do you do it? Will you stop?
He thought he would be okay - he only had two drinks. Then waited at the bar for two hours before driving. No way would be be caught for a DUI. But he rolled through a stop sign rather than coming to a full and complete stop. Those red and blues flashing in his rear view mirror and damn going through his mind as he pulled over.
He was arrested taken into the horseshoe and booked on DUI charges. It doesn't matter if you aren't above the legal limit - if your driving is impaired - and the cops can prove it is from breaking a traffic law (the rolling stop) - then you are busted.
DUI - you can't afford it - it is not worth it. If you drink - even just a few - don't get behind the wheel! Or rent a sedan, SUV or limo.
Whoo Hoo it is girl's night - whether it is a bachelorette party or a birthday celebration. No boys are invited. Just the group of girls for a night of gossip, giggles and lip gloss.
You know it! You-all will get a attention - boys love to look at a group of lovely ladies. They may be too intimidated to come up to the group - but there will be lots of looks and lots of flirting!
But wait. . . . before you head out - figure out who will be the designated driver, book some hotels rooms at a place within walking (or stumbling) distance, or order Scottsdale limo service or a Tempe party bus because women have a MUCH harder time processing alcohol than men.
Women have less of a key enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the stomach. Which leads to more DUI arrests for women than men. Then there is the issue of birth control - taking oral contraceptives increases the concentration of alcohol levels much faster in women.
So for those fun and crazy Girl's Night Out remember that women are much more likely to get a DUI than men and figure out your ride situation BEFORE you head out to avoid the nightmare of a DUI!
P.S. - Don't forget that we have a relationship with a lot of the clubs in Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix for VIP service!
I just finished reading an article about mandatory interlock devices - about 47 States mandate interlock devices for first-time DUI offenders and every year there are over 13,000 deaths from drunk drivers with blood alcohol over .08. Pretty interesting.
I know that one of my best friends got interlock after her 2nd DUI - she was happy because she felt like helped her not drink and drive. She has admitted to having a problem with drinking and has gotten help. Yes it was a pain to have to blow in the device - especially if she was talking on the phone or eating while driving. Sometimes she would lose her breath and not be able to get the right "hum" out and the machine would report an error.
Another friend of mine refused the field sobriety test (2 times) and didn't want to pay for the interlock device (which is required if you refuse a test) - so got is license suspended. He still drives - he still drives drunk. I think the device would be awesome for him. He doesn't seem to be able to control his drunk driving once he has a few cocktails. It just seems like a good idea to drive - after drinking - after two DUIs in the last 6 months - on a suspended license.
I think if there was a way to make an interlock device or sobriety monitoring device for all vehicles be unobtrusive and not a pain in the neck for sober drivers. Something that takes the measurements from your skin on the steering wheel or looks at your pupils like the article suggests it would be a great advancement to prevent drunk driving accidents.
Drink at home, get a cab, order a Phoenix sedan or AZ limo service - but don't drink and drive. Maybe if the stats go down to zero for DUI accidents - car manufactures can concentrate on other improvements than thinking of breathalizers and interlock devices.
What do you think? Do you have any personal experience with interlock devices? What it every car had something to measure drunk driving built in it - would that be acceptable to you?
We just finished another wonderful long weekend, Labor Day, a time when family and friends get together and celebrate the end of summer and the kids being back in school! Unfortunately, for many people the weekend celebrations ended up in a DUI arrest. Now they are on a long path of huge expenses and legal trouble.
How do you avoid a DUI? It is simple and easy - just follow these steps:
1. Drink at home - you organize the party and invite all your friends and family over. Make sure and wash the guest bed sheets and get some blankets ready for the couch because there will be some friends that need a place to sleep it off and that is okay. It is better to have some people over for breakfast who are alive - than have them killed or hurt somebody else in a drunk driving accident.
2. Find a bar/restaurant you can walk to. Just be careful of really over doing it because you can get in trouble for public intoxication - or even get a DUI if you are caught riding your bike when drinking. This works better if you live in Scottsdale or Tempe - but there are usually neighborhood bars in well - every neighborhood.
3. Designate a driver in advance. It doesn't work to try and figure it out on the fly. The day was stressful - or it was fun and everybody wants to celebrate - nobody is willing to step up to be the designated. Switch it up - it's my turn this time - your turn next and don't deviate from the plan. I was always the worst at this - I never wanted to be designated and threw a tantrum when it was my turn. But somebody has to suck it up and not drink. I promise you that you can have fun sober - I've done myself for the last 3 years.
4. Get a cab. If you are in old town Scottsdale, cabs are buzzing around like "flies on poop" - there is no excuse to not hail one. No money isn't a valid excuse. You went out - you had the money for drinks. The cab can take you through an ATM to get cash. Trust me, it is cheaper to pay for a cab than pay for a DUI.
5. Get a limo or party bus. Of course I was going to say this right? We have a limo company. And we don't always understand why a group of friends can't seem to scrape together $17-25 a person to get a limo or party bus. It actually saves you money to get a limo or party bus because you can drink on-board and get VIP access into clubs!
There really is no excuse to get a DUI - but thousands and thousands of people did this last Labor Day weekend. Hopefully you can try and use one of these tips and it can save your life or the lives of others!
I don't know if anybody else reading this blog watched that really sad, really good movie with Will Smith - Seven Pounds. Wow - to bear the weight of the death of seven people all because he was so busy checking out his phone (was it a Blackberry - or Crackberry). Like whatever email or text message on the phone was more important the the lives of 7 people. Horrible guilt. Great movie. And in that movie he wasn't even texting - he was just reading a text or email!
There was a recent study used as the basis for PSA ads in the United Kingdom and picked up by Mythbusters on Discovery Channel by the Transport Research Laboratory for the British Royal Automobile Club Foundation. They actually found that texting while driving was actually more dangerous than drinking and driving!
So in this blog I often say to get a limo, party bus, sedan or SUV to avoid a DUI. Maybe I also need to include to get a chauffeured vehicle if you just cannot stop yourself from constantly texting while driving - because it is actually more dangerous that drinking and driving!
What do you think? Are you guilty of texting while driving? They have the headsets for phone calls now - but what will be the hands-free solution for texting or reading on your handheld devices?
A 2007 survey done by the National Highway Administration shows some promising news on DUIs - fewer Americans are driving drunk but the scary part is that roughly one in six people on the road on weekend nights is drunk! We've heard from Scottsdale police that they put that number at closer to one in three drivers on the roads in old town Scottsdale are driving drunk! 1 in 3 drivers drunk - wow!
In a survey conducted in 2007, 2.2 percent of drivers had a blood-alcohol content of 0.8 percent or higher, which would exceed the limit for driving while intoxicated in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the agency said in a news release.
The first such survey, conducted in 1973, found 7.5 percent of drivers above the 0.8 limit, the release said. Other surveys were conducted in 1986 and 1996. The report goes on to talk about that use the drug use while driving is on the increase, however. Which is troubling.
To me I don't really understand why people do it - drive drunk. When I was drinking I would always get a cab, car service or a limo or Arizona party bus. That is probably why I wanted to start a limo business. To use the vehicles on their "down time" as much money as I was spending on cabs.
What do you think? Why do people drive drunk still? Are you encouraged that the rate of drunk driving is dropping? Do you think more people are aware now?
You might think that a government official would be more aware of the laws in their state. Especially a government official that works in the prison system, as a high-ranking state corrections officer. Mr. Scott Kernan was arrested on June 7th in a state vehicle near his home in Rancho Murieta. Although authorities would not reveal his exact blood alcohol level, they said it exceeded the legal limit of 0.08.
Kernan gets to witness daily the life of inmates in the State of California's prison system which is the second-biggest in the United States, after the federal prison system (and has the country's worst overcrowding problem. Some prisons are at more than 200 percent of their planned capacity).
You might think he would pay attention to the fact that many, many of the inmates incarcerated are there because of the actions they took while under the influence of drugs an alcohol - from robbery, to murder to rape. And some of those inmates are in this overcrowded prison system because of DUI.
Yet this high-ranking corrections officer still chose to get behind the wheel of his state vehicle and drive after drinking. At least he is pleading guilty and apologetic for his actions. But of course, what choice does he have? Maybe he should have booked a California limo or Orange County sedan instead of driving his state vehicle!
