Eat drink and be merry, just don’t get behind the wheel when you do. The likelihood of getting caught seems to be greater now than before because Traffic tickets, Dui arrests bring in money, something a lot of us don’t have or are reluctant to spend and here’s what you might encounter if you make that choice.

California has two basic drunk driving laws, found in vehicle code section 23152, sections (a) and (b):

A. It is a misdemeanor to drive under the influence of alcohol and /or drugs.

B. It is a misdemeanor to drive with .08% or more of alcohol in your blood.
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The blood-alcohol levels provided by the court are based on a variety of tests — some taken at the scene of the arrest or county jail, others through a later blood test — and have not necessarily been proven or admitted in court. It is unlawful for any person to operate a vehicle if that person has a blood-alcohol level of .08 or more, according to the California Vehicle Code.

Names listed below are for those convicted in November 2008.
Convictions/pleas: 60

Reported blood-alcohol below .10 or unavailable: 10

Reported blood-alcohol between .10 and .19: 37

Reported blood-alcohol between .20 and .29: 13

Tags: 2008 DUI Stats

Despite the hiring freeze and the projected budget shortfall, the Sacramento Police Department was able to hire 11 additional officers from an academy class that graduated Thursday night at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Some last-minute wrangling between Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Manager Rick Kerridge on Thursday morning allowed the savings from positions left vacant during the department’s hiring freeze to be transferred into signing up new officers said Steve Maviglio, Johnson’s spokesman.

The Sacramento Police Department still needs to close a $1.8 million shortfall in its budget to comply with mandated cuts.

The department is still technically in a hiring freeze, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. While the department still accepts lateral transfers from other agencies, hiring academy grads allows the Sacramento Police Department to add bodies and save money.

“We’re talking about folks where we get the cost savings by hiring them at the base salary,” Leong said.

It will still take about six months to get the recruits hired on at the Sacramento Police Department, Leong said. New members of the department need to complete a mandatory background investigation and submit to various physical and psychological tests before they are hired, he said.

An entry-level wage for a Sacramento Police officer is $15 per hour, Leong said. However, when factoring in the time it takes for another officer to train a recruit and other costs, hiring a new officer costs the department about $100,000 per year, he said. Field training for a new officer typically takes about six months, he said.

But adding officers is essential, even in during the recession, Leong said. Currents projections show the department will be down 98 officers at the beginning of the year, he said.

“When we come out of (the budget crisis), we don’t want to be 100 to 200 officers down,” he said.

One officer had already been hired on before he entered the academy, Leong said. That officer signed on before the department’s current fiscal difficulties, he said.

Johnson officially made the announcement to a large round of applause at the academy graduation.

“This commitment (to public safety) is something I campaigned on and I’m very proud to say that we’ll be able to keep these young people we invested in right here in Sacramento,” Johnson said. “Crime doesn’t wait on a struggling economy to get better.”

The Sacramento Police Academy graduated 27 new officers in total this class. Some will go on to work at local departments such as the Roseville Police Department and the Woodland Police Department. Others will go on to work at more distant locales, such as the Berkeley Police Department and the Menlo Park Police Department.

The first in an occasional look at Sacramento International Airport’s $1.3 billion makeover, one of the biggest public works projects in county history.

Holiday travelers will notice something new this year at Sacramento International Airport – a major construction zone.

Work barriers are up. Excavators are rumbling. And a gaping 16-foot-deep crater marks the foundation for a new four-story terminal and hotel.

While inconveniences are mild now, it raises a question: When the billion-dollar transformation is done in five years, will the airport lose its long-held reputation as easy-in, easy-out?

The answer literally is up in the air.

An automated tram system – called a people mover – will whisk passengers back and forth at about 20 miles per hour on a skyway over the north airfield between the new terminal and a separate jet gateway building.

The airport recently signed a $30 million deal with Bombardier of Canada, a company that has provided people movers for 17 airports, including San Francisco International and the acclaimed new terminal in Beijing, China.

Airport officials say trams will turn a several-minute walk into a 45-second glide – with panoramic views – keeping the expanded airport convenient for Sacramento fliers.

“It’s an easy way to transport a lot of people,” consultant Brent Kelley of Corgan Associates said. “It’s faster than a moving sidewalk.”

It represents both a physical and psychological break from what Sacramentans are used to at their airport.

Today fliers do their ticketing, baggage pickup and catch planes all in a single building, either Terminal A or Terminal B. That will no longer be the case when the new terminal replaces antiquated Terminal B.

Ticketing and baggage will be handled in the new four-story central terminal. But the federal security checkpoint and jet gates will be housed 300 yards away in a “remote concourse” building.

For the foreseeable future, Terminal A will remain a self-contained full-service terminal. Someday, however, it too might be served by a people mover, county representatives say. Its ticketing and baggage claim would be moved to the central terminal.

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The holiday period is upon us, and with it come the litany of reminders to not drink and drive.

The 21 police agencies in Alameda County are ramping up their anti-DUI efforts in the coming weeks to keep the roads safe during the holiday season.

The California Highway Patrol, as well as police departments in Fremont, Newark and Union City, are participating in the Avoid the 21 campaign, an effort named for the participating agencies in the county.

Officers on Friday began roving the streets and highways looking for drunken drivers, organizers said. They will continue to do so through the new year.

In addition, sobriety check points have been established in two cities.

Fremont police will man a checkpoint from 7 p.m. to midnight Tuesday on Thornton Avenue at Cabrillo Drive.

Officers will be looking for impaired drivers, as well as checking for valid driver’s licenses.

A similar operation will be held in Newark on Dec. 26. The location of that stop has not been established.

No checkpoints have been scheduled in Union City.

The anti-DUI efforts are funded by a grant provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Since 1998, the first year of the program, authorities have removed more than 6,000 intoxicated drivers from the state’s roads.

An analysis of California drinking and driving data from 1998 to 2007 shows that alcohol-related crashes involving young adult women drivers soared, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. The Auto Club found that women drivers ages 21-24 involved in fatal and injury alcohol-related crashes more than doubled — rising by 116%. The Auto Club analysis also showed their male counterparts’ crashes during the same period rose 39%.

The analysis also shows that young adult women drivers, passengers and pedestrians’ alcohol-related deaths and injuries have risen substantially — by nearly half since 1998 when 1,037 women ages 21-24 were killed and injured in alcohol-related crashes. In 2007, the level had risen by 46% to 1,515 in 2007, according to the Auto Club.

The Auto Club analysis of California Highway Patrol data of the last 10 years shows that women far outpaced men the same age in alcohol-related deaths and injuries. Alcohol-related deaths and injuries of men ages 21-24 increased by 18% compared to the 46% for women.

The findings were announced today at the first Orange County Drinking and Driving Community Forum. Attending the forum were traffic safety, health care and law enforcement professionals from around the Southland who heard presentations from local, state and national experts on various aspects of impaired driving. The Orange County Drinking and Driving 2008 Community Forum is a partnership among the Auto Club, the Costa Mesa DUI Task Force, the County of Orange Health Care Agency Alcohol and Drug Education Prevention Team (ADEPT) and the UCI Center for Trauma and Injury Prevention Research.

The Auto Club analysis also showed a notable increase in alcohol-related crashes among female drivers 18-20. Women drivers ages 18-20 were involved in 74% more alcohol-related fatal and injury crashes in 2007 than in 1998. Male drivers increased their crashes by 27%. About 2,200 California drivers ages 18-20 are in alcohol-related fatal and injury crashes annually.
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Starting tomorrow, Riverside County law enforcement agencies will join in a statewide crackdown on drunken drivers called “Avoid the 30,” said Karen Haverkamp, a supervisor with the Riverside Police Department.

Under California’s Holiday DUI Enforcement Campaign, authorities will have zero tolerance for impaired drivers and are asking other motorists to call 911 if they see a suspected drunken driver.

“How many times have you seen someone driving erratically in an unsafe manner and wished there was a cop around?” Haverkamp said. “Law enforcement
can’t be everywhere at once.”

Motorists are being asked to call 911 if they see drivers who are weaving on the road or exhibit other signs of being under the influence.

“Avoid the 30” alludes to the process of being handcuffed, with the 0 representing a closed handcuff and the 3 an open cuff about to be snapped closed.

“We need the public’s help to find impaired drivers and get them off the roads promptly,” Haverkamp said.

Checkpoints and saturation patrols will also be held across the county to stop drunk drivers, she said.

Fatalities dropped 6.7 percent between 2006 and 2007, partly because of more aggressive law enforcement, said Christopher J. Murphy, the program’s director.

“California has worked very hard over the past five years to reverse the trend of increasing alcohol-related traffic fatalities,” Murphy said. “Through an aggressive combination of sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols and greater vigilance on the part of the public by calling 911 when they see a drunk driver, we’re getting these dangerous drivers off the road.”

Berkeley police are about to use a $176,846 grant for a yearlong crackdown on drunken driving.

The grant was awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Police will use the money to set up DUI and driver’s license checkpoints and perform warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders. The effort will also include saturation patrols and court stings targeting DUI offenders with suspended or licenses who drive cars to court.

Police Chief Douglas Hambleton said the grant will allow officers to focus extra resources on impaired drivers and keep the city’s streets safe through traffic enforcement and education.

Officer Andrew Frankel said that between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007, 23 percent of drivers arrested for Dui were involved in collisions.
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Closing statements are scheduled Monday in the trial of a Perris man accused of killing a Moreno Valley couple in a 2006 car crash the defendant allegedly caused while drunk at the wheel.

Victor Gabriel Mendibles, 22, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and multiple charges of driving under the influence with great bodily injury allegations in connection with the Nov. 26, 2006, crash in Moreno Valley.

According to Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michelle Paradise, Mendibles’ blood-alcohol level was .17 – more than twice the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in California – on the evening of the crash that killed Ramon Devera, 55, and his wife, Velinda, 53.

The victims were northbound on Oliver Street when Mendibles, speeding west on Iris Avenue, ran a red light in his girlfriend’s double-cab GMC pickup truck and plowed into the Deveras’ car, according to the prosecution.

The couple’s two teenage daughters, seated in the back seat of the family’s Toyota Camry, suffered minor injuries. The victims had been out Christmas shopping, according to Paradise.

Last week, Riverside County sheriff’s Deputy Mario Moreno, who was detailed to take charge of Mendibles at Riverside County Regional Medical Center immediately after the crash, testified that he heard the then-20-year-old tell a nurse he had consumed “three or four” 40-ounce beers before going out driving on the day of the collision.

The defendant had a suspended license stemming from a DUI conviction, according to authorities.

Sheriff’s Cpl. John McLarin, who investigated the crash, testified that he estimated the defendant was traveling around 83 mph when the collision occurred.

McLarin said the impact of the defendant’s pickup smashing into the Camry caused the smaller vehicle to tumble more than 200 feet.

A witness to the crash, Pia Brierre, testified last week that Mendibles, though hurt, was conscious after the collision and smelled of alcohol and marijuana.

Brierre said she stayed with Mendibles, holding his hand, for 15 minutes until paramedics took over.

“He said he had been drinking and getting high because he’d had an argument with his girlfriend,” Brierre testified. “He kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”’

Mendibles had graduated from an alcohol rehabilitation program only months before the crash. Investigators found an Alcoholics Anonymous self-help kit in the pickup, as well as other materials from an area rehab clinic, according to Paradise.

She said the circumstances of the case warranted murder charges against the defendant.

Under California law, prosecutors can seek a homicide conviction when a suspected DUI offender accused of causing a fatal collision is likely to have known his conduct potentially endangered the lives of others when he got behind the wheel.

A single DUI murder conviction carries a mandatory 15 years to life prison sentence.

The defendant’s attorney, Chris Jensen, said last week his client’s actions did not “rise to the level of second-degree murder.”

Mendibles is being held without bail at Robert Presley Detention Center in downtown Riverside.

Source: Sign on San Diego