Florida paper suggests jail time does not keep drunks off road.
A study conducted at the University of Florida in Gainesville suggests the threat of jail time does not deter drunk drivers. That stems primarily from the fact that most people who drive after drinking do not think they will be stopped for suspicion of DUI.
Researchers, led by Professor Alexander Wagenaar, looked at changes in DUI laws and jail penalties for drunk driving offenses from a 17 year period and compared them against the number of DUI arrests and alcohol related vehicular deaths. They found that stricter laws and harsher penalties do not deter people from drinking and driving. Nor did they reduce the number of alcohol related accidents.
Wagenaar said, “There are many in the general public who continue to drive after drinking because they don’t really believe that they’re going to be detected, pulled over, caught and go through the process to be convicted before a jail term would come into play.”
The study has been published in the Accident Analysis and Prevention section of sciencedirect.com.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Friday, February 5, 2010
DUI Deaths Down in Skagit County, Snohomish County, Island, King County and in America in 2009
Alcohol related deaths down 7%
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that national DUI fatality rates dropped by 7% from 2007 to 2008 (the last complete year of data). LaHood cited aggressive drunk driving crackdowns by law enforcement groups for the drop. Safety research organizations also say the publicity surrounding drunk driving has also deterred many from drinking to excess and operating a motorized vehicle.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the drop continues a decade long trend. Since national organizations actively began addressing the issue of driving under the influence, the number of DUI related deaths is down 44%, from 21,113 in 1982 to 11,773 in 2008.
The largest decline in alcohol related traffic fatalities occurred in Vermont, which say a 45% drop. Other big drops were recorded in Wisconsin and Maine (-32%), Nebraska (-28%), Connecticut and Minnesota (-23%), South Dakota (-22%) and Arizona (-20%). In the larger populated states, California DUI deaths were down 9% from 1,132 to 1.029 and Texas DWI fatalities were down 2% from 1,333 to 1,269.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Thursday, February 4, 2010
No Cities in Skagit County, Snohomish County, Island County or King County are the Top DUI Cities in America
If you thought that Lynnwood or Everett in Snohomish County, Mt Vernon or Anacortes in Skagit County, Oak Harbor in Island County, or even Seattle in King County were the drunkest cities in America, you would be wrong. Here are the rankings which are based on a number of factors including incidents of DUI
Men's Health Magazine has released its ranking of "America's Drunkest Cities". The study took into account a number of factors, such as incidents of car crashes attributable to alcohol, the number of arrests for driving under the influence and the death rates from alcoholic liver disease.
Fresno, California was ranked the drunkest city for the year. Rounding out the top five positions are Reno, Nevada; Billings, Montana; Riverside, California and Austin, Texas. The least drunk city, coming in at the 100 position, is Boston, Massachusetts.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Men's Health Magazine has released its ranking of "America's Drunkest Cities". The study took into account a number of factors, such as incidents of car crashes attributable to alcohol, the number of arrests for driving under the influence and the death rates from alcoholic liver disease.
Fresno, California was ranked the drunkest city for the year. Rounding out the top five positions are Reno, Nevada; Billings, Montana; Riverside, California and Austin, Texas. The least drunk city, coming in at the 100 position, is Boston, Massachusetts.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sedro Wooley Man gets 41 month sentence in fatal Skagit County DUI case
MOUNT VERNON A judge today sentenced a 26-year-old Sedro-Woolley man to more than three years in prison for killing a 22-year-old Burlington woman while driving under the influence of alcohol in May.
Adam Hayden pleaded guilty July 16 to vehicular homicide. He ran a red light on Highway 20, striking Chrystal Hansen as she drove.
Hansen’s fiance was in the passenger seat of car. The couple had planned to marry on July 18, and Hansen, who was pregnant, was studying to become a nurse.
Hayden failed a sobriety test at the scene, and a blood test showed his blood-alcohol level to be .09. State law considers a person drunk at .08.
Skagit County Superior Court Judge Mike Rickert sentenced Hayden to 41 months in prison and 18 months of community custody, the maximum in his range.
Rickert said the worst cases are those where young lives are taken, and especially those with as promising of a future as Hansen’s “all the people she would have touched and all the lives she would have saved as a nurse.”
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Adam Hayden pleaded guilty July 16 to vehicular homicide. He ran a red light on Highway 20, striking Chrystal Hansen as she drove.
Hansen’s fiance was in the passenger seat of car. The couple had planned to marry on July 18, and Hansen, who was pregnant, was studying to become a nurse.
Hayden failed a sobriety test at the scene, and a blood test showed his blood-alcohol level to be .09. State law considers a person drunk at .08.
Skagit County Superior Court Judge Mike Rickert sentenced Hayden to 41 months in prison and 18 months of community custody, the maximum in his range.
Rickert said the worst cases are those where young lives are taken, and especially those with as promising of a future as Hansen’s “all the people she would have touched and all the lives she would have saved as a nurse.”
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Skagit County Jail needs more room for DUIs
Aaron Burkhalter
Skagit Valley Herald
January 26, 2010 - 07:00 AM
If Skagit County had $150 million to spare, it would still take four or five years to build the 700-bed jail it needs.
As of today, the county has no money for a new jail and no set proposal to get it.
But Skagit County Jail Chief Gary Shand said with 193 people crammed into a building originally built to hold 83, he needs a solution now. The jail was converted so that it could hold up to 180, but it is 13 over capacity, even as officials avoid booking nonviolent offenders into the facility.
“We need help today, we need help in the interim, and we need help with the new jail,” Shand told the Skagit Valley Herald on Monday. “We’re at critical mass.”
County criminal justice officials met Friday and considered loosening rules to release people early for good behavior, building a temporary facility and extending alternatives to jail time to ease the burden on the jail.
The extra inmates are sleeping on mattresses on the floor or a mattress on a 6-inch-thick plastic “boat bed.” Most single-person cells have been converted to hold two people.
The county has 15 people held at jails in Snohomish and Okanogan counties at rates of about $50 a day.
The jail is turning away people who would normally spend at least one night there, Shand said. The jail can’t keep people with nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, he said.
Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt said deputies have arrested people on felony charges — for things like identity theft or forgery — but couldn’t send them to jail. Deputies frequently give citations and a court order instead, a situation Reichardt described as frustrating.
“We want to make cases, prove cases and then we want to hold people accountable,” he said. “It’s very frustrating when you make a case and you have nowhere to put them.”
Shand has requested ongoing meetings with Skagit County’s prosecutor, public defender, sheriff and commissioners to come up with a solution to the ongoing problem.
The group has discussed alternative sentencing, such as community service, home-monitoring shortening sentences for good behavior and building a temporary, low-security facility for nonviolent offenders.
Shand said the jail simply needs more beds. Because the majority of people in the jail are awaiting trial and sentencing, alternative sentences don’t apply to most of those waiting. Of the 126 people in the jail’s medium-to-maximum-security housing area, 73 are “pre-sentence.” Of the 193 people total, 110 are pre-sentence.
County commissioners have been looking for ways to fund the new jail, and the county has considered purchasing property south of the current jail.
“We’ve been overbooked at the jail forever, and the cost is horrendous,” Commissioner Sharon Dillon said. “(But) a full-fledged jail is six, seven, eight years down the road.”
The commissioners seem to favor a three-tenths of one percent sales tax to pay for the estimated $150 million facility, but are reticent to adopt a tax while residents suffer in a poor economy with high unemployment.
But Commissioner Ron Wesen said the sales tax is probably the best answer because it can tax people traveling through the county and doesn’t force property owners to shoulder the cost.
“If you’re not spending money, you don’t have to pay sales tax,” Wesen said. “It’s a choice, not just based on the property you own.”
But, as Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt said, even if the county found the money solution today, the new jail wouldn’t be open for years.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Skagit Valley Herald
January 26, 2010 - 07:00 AM
If Skagit County had $150 million to spare, it would still take four or five years to build the 700-bed jail it needs.
As of today, the county has no money for a new jail and no set proposal to get it.
But Skagit County Jail Chief Gary Shand said with 193 people crammed into a building originally built to hold 83, he needs a solution now. The jail was converted so that it could hold up to 180, but it is 13 over capacity, even as officials avoid booking nonviolent offenders into the facility.
“We need help today, we need help in the interim, and we need help with the new jail,” Shand told the Skagit Valley Herald on Monday. “We’re at critical mass.”
County criminal justice officials met Friday and considered loosening rules to release people early for good behavior, building a temporary facility and extending alternatives to jail time to ease the burden on the jail.
The extra inmates are sleeping on mattresses on the floor or a mattress on a 6-inch-thick plastic “boat bed.” Most single-person cells have been converted to hold two people.
The county has 15 people held at jails in Snohomish and Okanogan counties at rates of about $50 a day.
The jail is turning away people who would normally spend at least one night there, Shand said. The jail can’t keep people with nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, he said.
Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt said deputies have arrested people on felony charges — for things like identity theft or forgery — but couldn’t send them to jail. Deputies frequently give citations and a court order instead, a situation Reichardt described as frustrating.
“We want to make cases, prove cases and then we want to hold people accountable,” he said. “It’s very frustrating when you make a case and you have nowhere to put them.”
Shand has requested ongoing meetings with Skagit County’s prosecutor, public defender, sheriff and commissioners to come up with a solution to the ongoing problem.
The group has discussed alternative sentencing, such as community service, home-monitoring shortening sentences for good behavior and building a temporary, low-security facility for nonviolent offenders.
Shand said the jail simply needs more beds. Because the majority of people in the jail are awaiting trial and sentencing, alternative sentences don’t apply to most of those waiting. Of the 126 people in the jail’s medium-to-maximum-security housing area, 73 are “pre-sentence.” Of the 193 people total, 110 are pre-sentence.
County commissioners have been looking for ways to fund the new jail, and the county has considered purchasing property south of the current jail.
“We’ve been overbooked at the jail forever, and the cost is horrendous,” Commissioner Sharon Dillon said. “(But) a full-fledged jail is six, seven, eight years down the road.”
The commissioners seem to favor a three-tenths of one percent sales tax to pay for the estimated $150 million facility, but are reticent to adopt a tax while residents suffer in a poor economy with high unemployment.
But Commissioner Ron Wesen said the sales tax is probably the best answer because it can tax people traveling through the county and doesn’t force property owners to shoulder the cost.
“If you’re not spending money, you don’t have to pay sales tax,” Wesen said. “It’s a choice, not just based on the property you own.”
But, as Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt said, even if the county found the money solution today, the new jail wouldn’t be open for years.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Lynnwood, Snohomish County Officer recognized for DUI arrests
By Cara Solomon
Seattle Times reporter
Mark Brinkman is an 11-year veteran of the Lynnwood Police Department.
It doesn't matter how many years pass. Officer Mark Brinkman will never forget that night on Whidbey Island — the night he came home with blood on his uniform, the blood of a 16-year-old girl.
For more information on this story check out this link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2004101479_brinkman02n0.html
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Seattle Times reporter
Mark Brinkman is an 11-year veteran of the Lynnwood Police Department.
It doesn't matter how many years pass. Officer Mark Brinkman will never forget that night on Whidbey Island — the night he came home with blood on his uniform, the blood of a 16-year-old girl.
For more information on this story check out this link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2004101479_brinkman02n0.html
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Snohomish County bars top DUI list
By Jennifer Sullivan
Times Snohomish County Bureau
Depending on whom you believe, Snohomish County is either home to five of the top 15 bars and taverns in the state that may have overserved customers this year or law-enforcement officers there are cracking down on the problem.
For the second time in two years, a Lynnwood tavern has topped the list as the bar most often named by drunken-driving suspects after they've been stopped and cited by police. Three Everett bars and a Bothell tavern also are on the list of the top 15 establishments that may have overserved customers, which is compiled by the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
While Daverthumps Pub & Galley was named by 54 drunken-driving suspects in 2004, Lynnwood police, State Patrol troopers and a senior enforcement officer with the Liquor Control Board say the top ranking is not entirely fair.
State Patrol Sgt. Rod Gullberg, who supervises the agency's breath-test section, said only 20 percent of police, deputies and troopers statewide are asking drunken-driving suspects where they were served. Gullberg said he has sent memos to troopers this year reminding them that asking suspects where they were drinking is one of the 14 questions required to be typed into a database by all law-enforcement officers when testing someone suspected of DUI.
"Some agencies do a better job than others," Gullberg said. "I can't say Snohomish County is doing a better job than others."
In the majority of the more than 40,000 DUI tests performed this year, officers are using a generic code — to either indicate drivers refused to say where they had been drinking, didn't recall where they were served or simply refused to answer — instead of naming the establishment they had been at, Gullberg said.
He thinks this is because many officers are in a hurry.
About a fourth of all breath tests in the state were performed in King County this year. Of the 15 bars named by the Liquor Control Board, one is in King County.
Kate Miyasato, senior enforcement officer for the Liquor Control Board's Northwest Region, said the list is only used for educational purposes. Businesses on the list aren't fined or punished; she said the hope is that law-enforcement and liquor-control officers will work closer with the bars to cut down on overservice.
"I think the reason Snohomish County is more prolific on the list is because we have more of a propensity to make DUI arrests," said Lynnwood police Sgt. Chuck Steichen. "There are agencies out there where there is no desire to push for DUI arrests."
In 2003, more DUI arrests were made in Lynnwood than in nearly any other city in the state, Steichen said. He said the department considers catching drunks a priority and finding out where the suspect has been drinking is a mandatory part of the process.
Don Mayfield, Daverthumps owner, doesn't fault Lynnwood police for doing their jobs but said his business is in a tough spot because police are so focused on drunken driving.
Mayfield said he's working closely with police and the Liquor Control Board to find ways to lower the number of drunken drivers leaving the bar. He said Daverthumps doesn't serve double shots or pitchers of beer after 12:30 a.m. and often talks patrons into finding alternate ways to get home to keep them from driving drunk.
"We probably do more than any other bar to curb overservice," Mayfield said.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
Times Snohomish County Bureau
Depending on whom you believe, Snohomish County is either home to five of the top 15 bars and taverns in the state that may have overserved customers this year or law-enforcement officers there are cracking down on the problem.
For the second time in two years, a Lynnwood tavern has topped the list as the bar most often named by drunken-driving suspects after they've been stopped and cited by police. Three Everett bars and a Bothell tavern also are on the list of the top 15 establishments that may have overserved customers, which is compiled by the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
While Daverthumps Pub & Galley was named by 54 drunken-driving suspects in 2004, Lynnwood police, State Patrol troopers and a senior enforcement officer with the Liquor Control Board say the top ranking is not entirely fair.
State Patrol Sgt. Rod Gullberg, who supervises the agency's breath-test section, said only 20 percent of police, deputies and troopers statewide are asking drunken-driving suspects where they were served. Gullberg said he has sent memos to troopers this year reminding them that asking suspects where they were drinking is one of the 14 questions required to be typed into a database by all law-enforcement officers when testing someone suspected of DUI.
"Some agencies do a better job than others," Gullberg said. "I can't say Snohomish County is doing a better job than others."
In the majority of the more than 40,000 DUI tests performed this year, officers are using a generic code — to either indicate drivers refused to say where they had been drinking, didn't recall where they were served or simply refused to answer — instead of naming the establishment they had been at, Gullberg said.
He thinks this is because many officers are in a hurry.
About a fourth of all breath tests in the state were performed in King County this year. Of the 15 bars named by the Liquor Control Board, one is in King County.
Kate Miyasato, senior enforcement officer for the Liquor Control Board's Northwest Region, said the list is only used for educational purposes. Businesses on the list aren't fined or punished; she said the hope is that law-enforcement and liquor-control officers will work closer with the bars to cut down on overservice.
"I think the reason Snohomish County is more prolific on the list is because we have more of a propensity to make DUI arrests," said Lynnwood police Sgt. Chuck Steichen. "There are agencies out there where there is no desire to push for DUI arrests."
In 2003, more DUI arrests were made in Lynnwood than in nearly any other city in the state, Steichen said. He said the department considers catching drunks a priority and finding out where the suspect has been drinking is a mandatory part of the process.
Don Mayfield, Daverthumps owner, doesn't fault Lynnwood police for doing their jobs but said his business is in a tough spot because police are so focused on drunken driving.
Mayfield said he's working closely with police and the Liquor Control Board to find ways to lower the number of drunken drivers leaving the bar. He said Daverthumps doesn't serve double shots or pitchers of beer after 12:30 a.m. and often talks patrons into finding alternate ways to get home to keep them from driving drunk.
"We probably do more than any other bar to curb overservice," Mayfield said.
For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com
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