A suspected drunk driver smashes into cars on a south sacramento street as families enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in their home.
It happen in the 44-hundred block of Iowa avenue in south Sacramento around dinner time Thursday.
Witnesses say the driver was speeding and slammed into cars on the both sides of the road.
Witnesses also say the driver even had a beer can with him as he was driving.
The driver finally came to a stop in a yard….just inches from a front door after hitting a car and trailer in the front yard of the Rodriguez family.
The Rodriguez family who was in the middle of cooking their Thanksgiving meal ran outside and saw their car destroyed. This while the suspected drunk driver was sitting behind the wheel of his car and slammed into a tree.
Cops arrested the suspect who didn’t speak english within minutes of the crash.
Now Iowa avenue residents in south Sacramento say they’ll have to call the insurance company and hopefully continue Thanksgiving dinner on Friday or the weekend.
Tags: Thanksgiving DUI
The California Highway Patrol says drunken driving arrests are up from last year this holiday weekend.
From Wednesday evening through 9:30 Friday morning, the CHP made 271 DUI arrests.
That’s 34 more arrests than this time last year.
Highway Patrol Officers are focused on citing drivers for several violations, including drunk driving, not wearing seat belts, and speeding.
Last year 33 people died in collisions over the Thanksgiving holiday maximum enforcement period.
Tags: Thanksgiving DUI
The driver of the car that crashed Monday near Woodland, killing a 10-year-old girl and leaving his baby son in critical condition, has two prior convictions for driving under the influence, Yolo County court records show.
Arnold Barraza, 25, of Woodland, pleaded no contest in May 2005 to a misdemeanor charge of driving with a blood-alcohol content at or above the legal limit and was sentenced to 201 days in custody, according to the records.
In the criminal complaint in that case, Yolo County prosecutors cited Barraza’s March 2000 conviction for DUI in Tulare County.
Barraza, who has spent time in state prison, has a string of criminal convictions that include assault, attempted car theft and resisting a law enforcement officer with the use of force, records indicate.
California Highway Patrol officials said Tuesday they are waiting for blood-test results to determine whether he was under the influence when the Mazda 3 sedan he was driving spun out of control and flipped.
Officers who responded to the crash reported an odor of alcohol. Excessive speed is also being looked at as a factor in the 1:19 p.m. crash.
CHP officers estimated the car was going about 85 mph when it rolled into a grassy ditch along County Road 22, which parallels Interstate 5 and becomes Main Street in Woodland.
The CHP said in a news release Tuesday that none of the three children in the car was protected by safety restraints. All were thrown from the car.
The two adults – Barraza and passenger Cirena Martinez, 28, of Woodland – were wearing safety belts and were not ejected, officers said.
The CHP said both adults suffered major injuries and were taken to UC Davis Medical Center.
The hospital listed Martinez in fair condition Tuesday night, but staff said they had no records for Barraza. His location could not be immediately determined by The Bee.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) charged 60 drivers with DUIs over an 8-hour period last weekend in central and south Sacramento.
CHP officials deployed 25 patrol units to scour freeways and surface streets in the area as part of a periodic program called RAID, which stands for Rapid Apprehension of Impaired Drivers, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Mike Bradley, a CHP spokesman, told the news source that arresting 60 drivers in one Sacramento night does not constitute an unusual event. “The south Sacramento area is a high-concentration area for alcohol and drug-related driving offenses. This is why Sacramento is one of the crash leaders in the state.”
He added that the police force typically arrests about 50 drivers for DUI charges in a single RAID effort. Most of the arrests are made between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.
According to CHP officials, RAID is financed by anti-DUI grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, which keeps statistics on Sacramento’s driving records and alcohol-related crashes.
Research by Mothers Against Drunk Driving estimates that one arrest for DUI is made for every 88 episodes of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration that is over the U.S. legal limit.
Local activist groups aired their concerns that DUI checkpoints in Fontana, California, are abused in order to enforce immigration.
Two organizations, including the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), raised the issue that was addressed at an October 28 Fontana City Council meeting. These groups say checkpoints are routinely held in heavily-Latino areas and near school property in order to target illegal immigrants.
The Fontana Police Department says the only checkpoints held around schools have been conducted after school hours. Further, the Department points out racial profiling is illegal and not conducted by its officers. They claim all immigration issues are handled separately once a suspect is booked and handed over to the sheriff.
However, San Bernardino County recently renewed the 287 (g) program – this allows police officers to act as immigration enforcers. An officer may request proof of citizenship during an arrest proceeding and turn a person in if no proof is available.
Community activists point out very few DUI arrests are actually made at checkpoints, but the police department makes money on the effort by impounding vehicles. Vehicles operated without lawful insurance or by an illegal immigrant are regularly impounded when checkpoints are held in areas heavily populated with Latinos.
Opponents of the checkpoints say these checkpoints are a public nuisance that clearly have motives other than DUI enforcement. They further question whether checkpoints are legal under Fourth Amendment protections. Regardless of these complaints, however, it is clear the checkpoints will not cease any time soon.
The Police Department says it will not stop the checkpoints as a result of these complaints. In fact, the Department has announced it received a $150,000 grant that will allow it to continue placing DUI checkpoints in the area to apprehend and remove dangerous drivers from the road. The monies will also be dedicated to public education.
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A teenager riding in a car with an alleged drunken driver was killed early Sunday when the vehicle went off the road, smashed through a bus stop shelter and rolled over, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Gerardo Chacon, 17, reportedly wasn’t wearing his seat belt while riding in the front passenger seat and was partially thrown from the Ford Mustang when it crashed around 2 a.m. on East Vista Way near Mason Road, CHP Officer Eric Newbury said.
Chacon, of Vista, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Newbury said the driver, 20-year-old Reyes Miranda of Oceanside, was hospitalized at Palomar Medical Center with moderate injuries and arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving.
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-08/local-county-news/vista-teen-killed-in-alleged-dui-crash#ixzz0WtJqdVRO
A Burlingame man with eight DUIs still had a valid driver’s license when he got his ninth in January because he apparently never hurt or killed anyone and many of his previous convictions were outside a 10-year cutoff period used by the Department of Motor Vehicles to assess drivers, a department official explained Monday.
A Bay Area legislator called the case of 42-year-old William Simon — first detailed Monday in a Bay Area News Group article — “irresponsible and outrageous,” but a director of the California DUI Lawyers Association said habitual drunken drivers will take to the streets with or without a license.
Under California law, drunken drivers have to hurt or kill someone before their licenses can be permanently revoked, DMV spokeswoman Jan Mendoza said. Despite DUI convictions dating back to 1985, William Simon, 42, has nothing on his record indicating that he hurt or killed anyone while over the limit and behind the wheel, she said.
There is another route by which state officials can permanently strip repeat offenders of their licenses, but the driver must be deemed an alcoholic. However, drivers who lose their licenses this way can reobtain it if they prove they have broken their addiction.
“We have to leave that door open, because the condition could change,” Mendoza said.
She declined to comment on whether Simon has ever been considered for an alcoholism revocation, because addiction is a regarded
as an illness, she said, and privacy laws prohibit the release of a person’s medical records. A copy of Simon’s driving records detailing his five arrests over the past 10 years — provided by the DMV to Bay Area News Group — do not show that he was ever evaluated for an alcoholism revocation.
For drivers such as Simon, it is not easy to get a license back after multiple arrests. The cost of hiring special insurance required for those convicted of DUIs and court-ordered classes on the dangers of drunken driving serve as a deterrent for repeat offenders, many of whom never get their licenses back, officials said.
However, the DMV’s practice of evaluating drivers based solely on their record from the previous 10 years means that older convictions are not taken into account if the driver reoffends. The penalty for nine DUIs in a decade would be much more severe than the consequences of nine over the course of 23 years, as is the case with Simon. For example, when Simon got his seventh DUI in July 2004, it was treated as being his third because the others fell outside the 10-year window.
Sacramento Kings forward Andres Nocioni was arrested for drunk driving on Thursday morning just after the team played the Atlanta Hawks.
Nocioni was released later Thursday after posting bail. According to a report from the Sacramento Bee, Nocioni was weaving within his lane and had an odor of alcohol when speaking with a police officer.
The 29-year-old released a statement through the team saying he was apologetic for his actions.
Nocioni was acquired by Sacramento last season from Chicago in a trade that sent Brad Miller to the Bulls. In 379 career games with the Bulls and Kings over six seasons, Nocioni has averaged 11.8 points and 5.0 rebounds.