Archives: 2010 January

Three Strikes DUI Bill in California Pending Approval

Jan 06

A three strikes bill for DUI is currently in the works in California to give judges the power to revoke the driving license of a repeat offender after three DUI’s.

Assemblyman Jerry Hill, the main proponent of the said legislation, sees the bill as a means to get drunk drivers permanently off the road even before they can kill or injure a motorist or pedestrian.

Under the law in California, driving licenses are only revoked because of death or injury caused by the driver. Likewise, the Department of Motor Vehicles only counts convictions from the past 10 years.

Aside from empowering judges to revoke the driver’s license after three DUI convictions, the DMV may also consider the defendant’s entire history of drunk driving in a suspension case.

Opponents of the bill on the other hand, such as the California DUI Lawyers Association, argue that passing Hill’s proposed law will only increase the number of unlicensed drivers on the road as it will not dissuade convicted drivers.

The Three Strikes DUI Bill, if approved and signed by the Congress and the governor will take effect on January 2011.

Every year in the United States, more than 5,000 people die from alcohol-related crashes. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting

System, as much as 32 percent of all motor vehicle accidents were caused by drunk drivers.

While California has several DUI laws such as the Zero Tolerance Law, Ignition Interlock Devise Law, drunk driving still continues to be a problem and a primary cause of car crash fatalities and injuries.

While it would be interesting to actually see whether or not the law would give rise to more unlicensed drivers on the road, victims of drunk drivers can still go after the drunk driver for damages and proper compensation.

Generally, if the other party in an accident is proven to be drunk, he is also most likely to be considered as liable for any injury suffered by the victim.

Drunk driving victims can recover medical expenses, future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, disability, loss of quality of life, the present and the future impairment, loss of consortium, and the loss of services.

LAPD Motorcycle Officer Injured in Crash

Jan 05

Motor vehicle accidents can happen at any place, at any time and to anyone – even to a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer.

According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), an off-duty motorcycle officer was involved in a solo vehicle crash on the 405 Freeway in Long Beach where the unnamed officer sustained an elbow injury.

The crash which is under investigation has caused considerable traffic in the area. The LAPD officer was allegedly on his way home and was riding a Department-issued motorcycle at the time of the accident.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately 80 percent of all motorcycle crashes result in injury or death. The high rate of injury and death is mostly attributed to the fact that motorcycles offer virtually no protection in a crash.

Unlike seatbelts, airbags, sturdy roofs, and door beams of cars which offer a measure of protection to its occupants, the best protection motorcycle riders have against death and injury in case of a crash is a motorcycle helmet.

Also, motorcycles are more likely to crash than any other motor vehicle.

Because motorcycles are designed to have high performance capabilities such as maneuverability, agility, ability to stop and swerve quickly, it has sacrificed the stability and protection offered by other vehicles such as a passenger car. Its size also makes it less visible to other vehicles on the road.

No matter how good or skilled a person is in riding a motorcycle – whether as a new rider or someone who rides it for a living, for many motorcycle riders, an accident is pretty much inevitable.

The only thing that would tip the scale between life and death in a motorcycle crash is a helmet. Wearing a federally-approved helmet would decrease the chances of serious head or neck injury by as much as three times.