Free Republic

Hawaii lawmakers are asking how much marijuana a driver can safely consume before getting behind the wheel of a car. It’s an issue they want to tackle now that Hawaii is setting up medical marijuana dispensaries. So Rep. Cindy Evans and 15 other lawmakers introduced a resolution asking the state Department of Health to study whether a person can safely drive while under the influence. Marijuana is the illicit drug most frequently found in the blood of drivers who have been involved in accidents, including fatal ones, but the role marijuana plays in those accidents is often unclear because it...

The National Transportation Safety Board wants to decrease the legal driving limit to one drink, lowering the legal limit on blood-alcohol content to 0.05 “or even lower.” The agency released its “most wanted list” on Wednesday, a laundry list of policies it would like implemented nationally. The list includes recommendations to reduce the current 0.08 blood alcohol content limit and outlaw all cell phone use while driving, even hands-free technology.

The National Transportation Safety Board wants to decrease the legal driving limit to one drink, lowering the legal limit on blood-alcohol content to 0.05 "or even lower." The agency released its "most wanted list" on Wednesday, a laundry list of policies it would like implemented nationally. The list includes recommendations to reduce the current 0.08 blood alcohol content limit and outlaw all cell phone use while driving, even hands-free technology. "When it comes to alcohol use, we know that impairment begins before a person's BAC reaches 0.08 percent, the current legal limit in the United States," the agency said. "In...

Woman Proves Her Body Brews Alcohol To Beat DUI Charges Drink driving charges against a woman in New York have been dismissed after it was revealed she suffers from auto-brewery syndrome - a rare digestive condition that turns food into alcohol. The 35-year-old teacher was pulled over in New York last October after police received reports her Toyota Carolla was "weaving all over" the road. When pulled over and tested, she recorded a blood-alcohol level of more than four times the legal limit at 0.33%. Police alleged that she failed several field sobriety tests, including standing on one foot and...

Disgusted, yes. Shocked, no. That's what Kevin McConnell feels after learning that Ethan Couch — the teenager who killed four people and injured several others, including McConnell's then 12-year-old son Lucas, while driving drunk on a Texas road - is on the lam. In the McConnells' view, Couch was never held accountable. ... On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch and some friends stole beer from a Walmart. They started drinking and then hit the road, with Couch behind the wheel. That same evening, Hollie Boyles and her daughter Shelby left their home to help Breanna Mitchell, whose SUV...

After being pulled over for driving at night without her headlights on, a “fidgety” Florida woman exhibited several signs of intoxication, according to a recent police report.The motorist failed a series of field sobriety tests. Since her blood alcohol content registered a .000, police suspected--correctly as it turned out--that the driver was impaired due to the ingestion of some kind of illegal narcotics.But what likely convinced officers that the woman was driving under the influence was what happened when she was asked for her driver’s license. The subject, cops noted, "attempted to hand the officer a baseball card."

(CNN)A woman suspected of drunken driving crashed a car into a crowd of spectators at Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade, killing four people -- including a 2-year-old -- authorities in Stillwater said Saturday. Three adults were pronounced dead at the scene, while the fourth victim, the young boy, died from his injuries at OU Medical Center Children's Hospital, according to a Stillwater police statement. Spokesman Capt. Kyle Gibbs said Saturday night that 44 people had been injured, an uptick from previous reports. Four children and three adults were hospitalized at OU Medical Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Vallery Brown. While...

• Drunk driving suspect claims his dog was driving the car The dog was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t stop one drunk driving suspect from blaming his pet. Florida resident Reliford Cooper III was arrested after crashing his car and promptly gave police a rather unbelievable 'excuse'. "Who was chasing me?" he asked the officer, adding: "My dog was driving that car, I ran 'cause I wanted to. You ain’t gonna find no drugs or guns on me." Mr Cooper is alleged to have ignored a stop sign and travelled across two ditches before crashing into an occupied...

Pun intended. It’s been four months today since my dad was killed in a hit-and-run crash. He was cycling near his home on May 4 and was hit from behind by an intoxicated motorist (who was later apprehended). Dad was killed instantly. As I wrote a month after the crash, my dad was my rock, and our whole family is trying to pick up the pieces of our lives and figure out how to go on without him.

Aldon Smith’s turbulent career with the 49ers ended Friday morning, shortly after his fifth arrest since 2012 and third instance of alleged drunk driving. The 49ers announced Smith’s release three hours after he posted bail, following Thursday night’s arrest by Santa Clara police for drunken driving, hit-and-run and vandalism. “This organization has tried very hard to help Aldon fight his issues,” an unattributed statement from the 49ers said. “Although he is no longer a member of this team, our support and concern for him will continue.”

The little girl got dragged through her neighborhood in Farmington as she gripped onto the driver’s side running board, screaming and banging on the car window, KARE reported. She eventually jumped off the car and fell into the road as her mom, 46-year-old Rena Mae Giancherio, drove away last Monday. “I went over to check on (the girl) and her knees are all cut up,” neighbor Terry Heller told the station. “She’s on the curb just crying and the mom is already gone, just drove off, she didn’t stop or look down.” The girl injured her foot from the fall,...

A Santa Rosa man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of child endangerment and other charges after he allowed his 15-year-old daughter to drive his Dodge Ram while he sat by as a drunken passenger, the CHP said. An officer stopped the truck Sunday night around 7:30 p.m. after noticing it going about 20 mph in a 35 mph zone on Llano Road with expired registration, said Officer Jon Sloat in a news release. He stopped the truck after it pulled into a private driveway and found that a 15-year-old was driving along with passenger Grasifedo Chavez, 35. Chavez told the...

A 29-year-old man found hiding in a garbage can was charged with felony DUI and multiple other charges after a series of hit-and-run collisions in Midtown Anchorage on Thursday night, police said.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Four lawyers. Two shock jocks. One flirtatious paralegal. A Florida judge will soon decide if three well-known Tampa attorneys tricked a rival lawyer into getting a DUI in an attempt to derail opposing counsel on a defamation case. The ethics trial began this week and it has riveted Tampa's legal community with its salacious details of scheming and flirtation, of prior drunk driving arrests and extramarital affairs. On one side is the Florida Bar, which supports the version of events told by lawyer Phil Campbell. He was charged with DUI two years ago. The Bar alleges...

Worrying about teen drinking and drug use has kept many a parent up at night. With marijuana becoming increasingly available and legal in some parts of the country, the question has taken on new urgency: If teens are going to experiment, which is safer, booze or pot? "The first answer always has to be neither," Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, told CBS News. But then he acknowledges they're not exactly equivalent -- and he considers alcohol much more dangerous. Carroll wrote a provocative piece for the New York Times exploring what's known...

Two senior Secret Service agents -- one of whom is a top member of President Obama's protective detail -- reportedly drove a government car into White House security barricades after drinking at a late-night party last week. The Washington Post, citing a current and a former government official familiar with the incident, reported Wednesday afternoon that the officers on duty who witnessed the March 4 incident wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests. But the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home, said the sources, who spoke to the...

Lawmaker proposes lower military drinking age • A Maryland senator has proposed a new bill to allow 18-year-old members of the US military to drink alcohol, despite the legal drinking age in the country being 21. Senator Ron Young, D-Frederick proposed a reduction in the legal drinking age for military members to the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee on Friday. The bill would permit service members under the age of 21 to drink beer and wine at a bar or restaurant by showing valid military identification, however spirits and off-premise purchases would still be prohibited. “Is someone can...

CARSON CITY — A Nevada assemblyman was arrested early Friday on suspicion of drunken driving after a Carson City deputy found him asleep in a car outside a bar with a gun in his pocket, authorities said.

A controversial new flyer is helping some people dodge DUI checkpoints, without even speaking a word to the police. Motorists who pull up to sobriety checkpoints are holding up the “Fair DUI Flyer.” The flyer reads “I remain silent, no searches and I want my lawyer,” along with a short list of state laws. Drivers who are passing through DUI checkpoints don't roll down the window, but instead display the flyer with their driver’s license, insurance and registration. …

The Obama administration is telling Customs and Border Protection agents in a busy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico crossing that they don’t have to arrest intoxicated drivers, sparking backlash from advocacy groups and others. The Department of Homeland Security issued the advisory, which informs agents in the Tucson, Ariz., sector that they have three options if they encounter suspected drunk drivers -- detain them at the request of local law enforcement, detain them without the involvement of another agency or let them go. In stark terms, the bulletin explains which options put the officers at greatest risk of being sued. The...