From coast to coast, law enforcement officials were busy fielding the damage done by intoxicated drivers during the Memorial Day weekend.
DUI arrests were up compared to last year in San Francisco, said California Highway Patrol officials. For the first two days of the Memorial Day weekend, CHP officers arrested 96 drivers on suspicion of driving under the influence, compared to 87 from last year.
Cops in Beverly Hills arrested filmmaker Oliver Stone who was driving in his Mercedes at 11:30 p.m. Friday. Stone was stopped at a checkpoint on Sunset Boulevard, reported E!Online. Stone eventually pleaded guilty to drug possession, no contest to DUI and ordered to rehab.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles states that drivers are required by law to submit to a chemical test to determine the drug content of blood; the method is used to detect drugs in addition to alcohol if suspected by a police officer.
The Nevada Highway Patrol responded to 150 collisions on Interstate 15 through 5 p.m. on Monday, a spokesman said.
In Utah, officers responded to one DUI-related rollover accident at 4 a.m. Monday. The crash resulted in only minor injuries. UHP and other agencies handled several DUI arrests, but said numbers weren’t unusually high.
State Police in Connecticut made 82 drunken driving arrests over holiday weekend. According to final figure, police responded to 323 accidents, two of them fatal. The number of drunken driving arrests increased by 40 percent since 2003.
A motorcyclist was killed and his fiance seriously injured when their bike was struck by a drunken van driver in Brooklyn during the holiday, authorities said. Troopers throughout New York issued more than 12,800 citations for traffic violations throughout Memorial Day. Most were for seat belt and speed violations. Troopers arrested 297 motorists for driving while their ability was impaired by alcohol or drugs.
According to attorney Andrew Mishlove, a traditional tool used in convicting drunken drivers, the breath test, may be invalid due to an unlicensed or unqualified operator, radio frequency interference, mouth alcohol contamination and internal temperature inaccuracy.
“A blood test may be invalid due to unlicensed or unqualified medical personnel doing the blood draw, improper storage and handling of the blood, improper transfer of the blood or malfunctioning test machinery. Despite the results offenders should contact an attorney,” said Mishlove.
