Fight A DUI

Deana Jarrett of Woodinville, WA registered a 0.47 percent BAC after hitting two cars on April 11, 2007, a State Patrol officer reported. The figure - well into the potentially legal range - represents the highest BAC ever measured after an arrest in Washington. Shockingly, the April 11th arrest was Jarrett’s second in as many days - she was arrested the day before in Redmond, WA, where she refused a breath test during a traffic stop.

The Saratogian has the details of a pending case involving a 56 year old driver - Kay VanAvery - awaiting charges stemming from a crash resulting in a fatality. VanAvery pulled out of a parking lot in front of two motorcyclists, who were thrown from their bikes and subsequently transported to the hospital where one of the men died.

Interestingly, because the first breath test revealed a legal (0.06%) BAC, the DA must wait for a blood test before filing charges. If the blood test reveals a slightly higher result of 0.07%, the DA is expected to file a charge of driving while impaired, vehicular manslaughter, and vehicular assault. If the blood test is less than 0.07%, the only charges will be vehicle and traffic violations, which carry a much lighter penalty.

A Canby, Oregon man (James Lord, 50) pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and two counts of manslaughter for the crash that killed LeAnna Wing and Tracie Diamond, both 39, last June.

Lord was driving Northbound on 99E near South End Rd. when his SUV crossed into opposing lanes, colliding with the vehicle in which both women were driving. The women were both pronounced dead at the scene.

Cleveland.com is carrying an AP article detailing plans in South Dakota to allow repeat offenders to continue driving, as long as they report to their local sheriff twice a day for breath alcohol testing. If they submit to daily testing and pass, they’re allowed to drive; if they don’t appear for testing or have any alcohol in their system, they’re placed in jail.

South Dakota is the first state to use a policy of this nature, with a 2 year pilot program in 14 of South Dakota’s 66 counties. The goal is to encourage the 1000+ chronic drunk drivers - those with 2 or more arrests for DUI - to make a decision to either stop drinking or stop driving.

John P Muncer, 47, was arrested and charged with DUI following a minor accident at the American Legion post in Point Township, PA Thursday evening. Muncer, an active Northumberland County assistant District Attorney, has checked into an in-patient rehabilitation program Friday after being charged with two counts of driving under the influence and careless driving.

The county’s District Attorney, Tony Rosini, said that the criminal case will be handled by the state Attorney Generla’s office, and that Mr. Muncer is taking a voluntary paid (sick) leave during rehab, and may face diciplinary action upon his return.

The Camarillo Acorn reports that the winter holiday crackdown on drunk drivers in Ventura (CA) county led to 287 arrests, with a majority of those (135) coming from the Ventura office of the California Highway Patrol.

“We are very pleased with the number of DUI arrests our Avoid the 14 officers made over the holidays,” said Senior Officer Humberto Jimenez of the Oxnard Police Department, campaign coordinator.

“We prevented a great many deaths and injuries by taking these dangerous drivers off the road,” Jimenez said

The crackdown, from December 15th to midnight on January 1st, included sobriety checkpoints, in-city DUI patrols, CHP freeway saturation, and an emphasis on regular beats focusing on DUIs during the period.

California is one of many states that will have a significant increase in DUI checkpoints over the upcoming holidays, with 93 law enforcement agencies spending $3.7 million over the next few weeks. As studies have shown that mandatory checkpoints produce a reduction in alcohol related crashes and fatalities, drivers can expect most of the $3.7 million to be spent in DUI checkpoints.

“Public safety is my No. 1 priority,” said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Driving drunk or otherwise impaired is unacceptable and a serious threat to themselves and to those around them. I am committed to supporting our state’s law enforcement with the tools necessary to detect and remove impaired drivers and keep our roadways safe,” said the Governor.

Meanwhile, Delaware police will hold six DUI checkpoints throughout the state over the Christmas weekend. Since Thanksgiving, Delaware police have arrested 123 people, with 43 of those DUI arrests coming last weekend.

Hawaii brings a slightly different twist to the DUI checkpoint news, with  students and relatives of DUI victims helping Police on the Big Island during the coming week. At the Pahoa checkpoint, students from Pahoa High School and students from University Mothers against Drunk Drivers (UMADD) will display posters, wave signs, and distribute bottled water to sober drivers as they pass through the checkpoint. In Waimea, relatives of a brother and sister killed in separate drunk driving crashes will display photos of their loved ones.

Nevada will also be participating in DUI crackdowns, with extra focus on the News Years Eve celebrations in Las Vegas and Reno. Fittingly, Nicole Richie, who had been scheduled to host a New Years Eve party in Las Vegas, has announced that she will step down as host following her own DUI arrest last week in Los Angeles.

In the past, we’ve covered how the low carb diet can disrupt many DUI tests due to changes in body chemistry, but it’s worth pointing to an article from a Las Vegas DUI attorney stating that Diabetes can have similar results caused by the same changes in body chemistry (specifically ketoacidosis) that many low carb dieters will show.

Ignoring for the moment the inherent inaccuracy of these breath alcohol machines, most suffer from a little-known design defect: they do not actually measure alcohol. Rather, they use infrared beams of light which are absorbed by any chemical compound in the breath sample (including ethyl alcohol) which contains the “methyl group” in its molecular structure; the more absorption, the higher the blood-alcohol reading. The machine is programmed to assume that the compound is “probably” alcohol. Unfortunately, thousands of compounds containing the methyl group can register as alcohol. One of these is acetone. And a well-documented by-product of hypoglycemia is a state called ketoacidosis, which causes the production of acetones in the breath. In other words, the Breathalyzer will read significant levels of alcohol on a diabetic’s breath where there may be little or none. See “Diabetes, Breath Acetone and Breathalyzer Accuracy: A Case Study”, 9(1) Alcohol, Drugs and Driving (1993).

No problem, you’re not diabetic and you eat a standard diet? A normal drop in blood sugar can still cause your BAC to report artificially high on a breathalyzer.

Actually, you don’t even need to be a diabetic to display hypoglycemic-induced symptoms of intoxication. Perfectly normal, healthy individuals can experience temporary conditions of low blood sugar after consuming small amounts of alcohol, resulting in exaggerated but false symptoms of intoxication. Fasting glycemia can exist where a person has not eaten in 24 hours or has been on a low-carbohydrate diet. Production of glucose in the liver is stopped while the alcohol is broken down. Result: the blood sugar level will drop, affecting the central nervous system — and producing symptoms of a person under the influence of alcohol.

With the weekend arrest of a woman who critically injured a pedestrian while driving under the influence put the State College police above the record of 430 nighttime DUI arrests in a year, with a month of holidays to go. The arrest of Katherine Applegate (23) - who was driving a Ford Explorer with a BAC of .208, twice the legal limit, when she hit pedestrian Michael Drauch (18) - tied the department’s record set in 2003.

The department did not explain the increase in arrests, but speculated it could be either more people driving drunk, increased enforcement by police, or some combination of the two factors.

Steven Edward Latham, 29, of Conway SC, was granted a $120,000 bond Tuesday after being arrested Sunday for two counts of felony DUI and a violation of the seat belt law following a crash that killed Porter Lee Richardson (39) and his wife Donna (38).

Latham, driving a Chevrolet Blazer, is accused of disregarding a traffic light and hitting a Chevrolet Malibu at 7:30 a.m. last Thursday. Porter Lee Richardson, 39, and his wife, Donna Richardson, 38, of Conway, were riding in the Malibu and were both killed in the crash.

Latham was flown from the scene of the accident to the Medical University of South Carolina, officials said. It was unclear how much time he spent at MUSC, because his identity was not available until Monday.

The Richardsons had just dropped off Porter Richardson’s son at the outlet stores before the crash.

Senior Trooper Sonny Collins with the Highway Patrol said authorities would not release any more information, including the results of any blood-alcohol tests, until Latham’s case goes to court.