Mother Arrested in Suspected DUI Crash Which Killed Daughter

Jan 28

Los Angeles LawyerCar Accident, DUI, Personal Injury 2 Comments

Every 45 minutes, one person is killed by a drunk driver.

Take for example, in Temacula, a 41-year old mother of 3 was arrested by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of murder and 3 counts of DUI causing injury after a fatal crash that killed her own daughter and injured her children.

Karen Honeycutt was driving the family SUV around 3 PM at Redhawk and Vail Ranch parkways when she inexplicably lost control over the vehicle. According to the authorities, the SUV struck a tree before it slammed into a light pole and rolled over.

The impact of the crash ejected 9-year old Chloe Honeycutt and her 17-year old sibling who were both unrestrained by safety belts. Another sibling, an 8-year old wore his seat belt and did not get ejected. Chloe died while her siblings were sent to the Riverside County Regional Medical Center for their injuries.

The Sheriff’s officials have reported that the mother also suffered injuries but is already conscious in the hospital as the injuries aren’t life threatening. Although the investigation is just beginning, alcohol appears to be a factor in the crash hence the arrest.

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Melrose Star Actress Indicted in Fatal DUI Crash

Dec 20

Los Angeles LawyerCar Accident, DUI, Personal Injury, Vehicle Accident No Comments

Actress Amy Locane, who had a role in the TV Hit Melrose Place and co-starred with Johnny Depp in the movie Cry-Baby at the height of her career, is sinking fast since an alcohol-related fatal crash in New Jersey last June 2010.

Locane, a 38-year old mother of 2 girls was indicted by a grand jury on charges of aggravated manslaughter and assault by automobile after a collision that left a the driver of another car seriously injured and a passenger dead. Also, even before the fatal crash, she has allegedly rear-ended a car miles away from the accident.

She was arrested for DUI and according to the police, her speech was slurred and her eyes were glassy. She admitted to the officers that she had several glasses of wine before she drove her 2007 Chevy Tahoe. Locane crashed her SUV into a 2010 Mercury Milan as it was turning into a driveway, killing Helene Seeman and critically injuring her husband, Fred Seeman.

Her lawyer however, feels that the charges against Locane are misplaced and believes that she will be acquitted. He claims that Locane was being chased at high speeds by a woman which led to the fatal accident.

Although the former soap actress is free after a $50,000 bail posted by her husband, if convicted of the charges against her, she may be sentenced up to a maximum of 30 years in prison.

Alcohol-impaired driving is one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents. Whether drunk on wine or beer or hard liquor, drivers with a high level of blood alcohol content (at or above 0.15 percent) have a very high risk of being involved in a police-reported crash or dying in a crash.

Alcohol is basically an anti-depressant so it slows down the function of the central nervous system which can diminish a person’s perceptions, and affect his emotions, movement, vision, and hearing. The probability of a fatal crash increases significantly after 0.05 percent BAC and climbs more rapidly after 0.08 percent.

Because of the dangers of alcohol-impaired driving, all 50 US states as well as the district of Columbia have imposed Driving under the Influence (DUI) laws that make it a crime to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 percent. Violation of these laws not only give rise to a DUI charges – in the event that a drunk driver causes an accident which resulted to injury or death, corresponding criminal and civil lawsuits may also be filed by the victims.

Mother Who Hosted Underage Drinking Party Only Gets Probation and Fine

Feb 22

Los Angeles LawyerDUI, Personal Injury dui related car accidents 1 Comment

There will be no jail time for Deborah Gibney.

The 47-year-old Fallbrook mother dodged a bullet as she was only slapped with 3 years probation, a $300-fine, parenting class, and sessions with Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) victim panel after pleading guilty to violating the county ordinance against underage drinking parties.

The incident happened last June after Gibney threw an end of the school year party for her teenage children.

Most of those in attendance were students from Cathedral Catholic High School.

Gibney was arrested after driving an overly drunk girl to Fallbrook Hospital where the staff got suspicious and called the deputies.
Gibney tried to give a false story but the officers did not buy it. She was arrested as she was trying to leave.
When the investigators got to Gibney’s house, they found that many of the guests were underage.

Investigators were even told by some party goers that Gibney was hesitant to call 911 after the girl felt ill.

As parents, we should be more responsible about the message we give to our children.

Not only are Gibney’s actions a bad example, it is also against the law and she was lucky that she only got a slap in the wrist as penalties.

Under the county law, if you will be serving alcohol to guests, you have to verify the age of the guests, supervise minors and control access to alcohol.

This is to prevent any more DUI related car accidents that is actually one of the leading cause of death, not only in California, but the whole US.

DUI Knows No Gender and No Age

Nov 20

Los Angeles LawyerDUI driving under the influence 1 Comment

While most female DUI arrests are commonly associated with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan (the young party-hardy girl type), it is interesting to point out that a lot of women caught driving under the influence are older women, as in mothers and wives.

It seems that no one is too young or too old to be wise enough to not drink and drive.

In fact, in Northern Virginia, the 76-year-old wife of a United States Senator was recently charged with two misdemeanors of driving while under the influence and hit and run.

Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana’s wife, Charlene Lugar was pulled over by an officer from the Fairfax County Police after seeing smoke coming out from under the hood of her car and the damage on the vehicle.

According to the police, the senator’s wife also hit a parked car and left the scene of the accident some two miles from where she was stopped.

The senator and his wife, in a statement said that were deeply sorry and embarrassed over the accident and that it was fortunate that no one got hurt.

A mother from New York was not a lucky as Senator Lugar’s wife. A few months ago, Diane Schuler killed herself, her daughter, her three and three other men in another car in a wrong-way crash.

She was described by family as a loving mother but at the time of the accident, the authorities have reported that she had a 0.19 blood-alcohol level and traces of marijuana in her system.

The DUI figures for female drivers are certainly alarming, not only are the numbers rising (in 2008, 21 percent of female drivers in fatal car accidents had BACs at or above 0.08 percent), the numbers cut across all ages.

While lady drivers aged 21-30 years old whose BACs ranged from 0.08 percent to 0.15 percent and above took the lion’s share for most fatal DUI crashes, the rest of the female age group also marked significant numbers.

It just goes to show, driving under the influence is a crime that can be committed by anyone, even by a 76-year old wife of a United States Senator.

Sweeping Arrests for DUI, Reckless Drivers Made in East County

Nov 20

Los Angeles LawyerDUI, Personal Injury DUI No Comments

As the saying goes, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”.

East county residents (or at least, those with outstanding traffic warrants) got a rude awakening when the Sheriff’s Department assisted by officers from the El Cajon and La Mesa police and the California Highway Patrol conducted a sweeping arrest.

The sweep targeted 750 people with outstanding warrants for driving under the influence and misdemeanor violations such as driving under a suspended license and reckless driving. Majority of the warrants were for DUI.

The operation which started at a very early 6 o’clock in the morning, was dubbed as Highway 67 Arrive Alive Campaign. However, only 67 arrests were made from the original target.

Several of those arrested also had more than one warrant of arrest issued against them and according to the Sheriff’s Department, 105 warrants were taken off the books. The 67 people arrested were booked into county jail and will likely face enhanced penalties.

While drunk drivers are obviously road hazards, drivers who operate their vehicles recklessly and pay no heed to traffic rules are just as dangerous.

A lot of the times, while people seem to think DUI is harmless or that speeding isn’t dangerous at all, these drivers often learn their lessons too late because of a tragic car crash they have triggered because of their driving behavior.

For a lot of motorists and pedestrians, every minute these drivers are allowed to drive is a threat to their security and safety. Enforcing the law through warranted arrests is one way of pre-empting drunken car crashes or motor vehicle accidents caused by the reckless driving.

Some lessons are learned through tragedy and some are learned through the enforcement of laws as they should be.

Man Pleads Guilty to La-Z-Boy DUI

Oct 26

Los Angeles LawyerDUI, Personal Injury DUI No Comments

Well, the law says that for a person to be charged DUI he had to be driving a vehicle, and apparently motorized upholstery counts as a vehicle too.

That’s what we found out today when a Minnesota man pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-boy while drunk.

The Laz-boy was powered by a converted lawnmower and even had a cup holder and a stereo.

According to reports, Dennis LeRoy, 62, told the police that he left a bar in Proctor aboard his La-Z-boy after drinking 8-9 bottles of beer.

He eventually crashed to a parked vehicle.

The prosecutors said that his BAC at the time of the “vehicular” accident was .29%, which is very high and serves as an aggravating offense.

DUI offenders with at least .20% BAC in Minnesota may be given an increased punishment under the “enhanced penalty rule.”

LeRoy got 180 days jail time and two years probation for the offense.

Just goes to show the flexibility of the law. It did not say that it had to be a car or any other common vehicle that you need a license to drive.

It just stated that everyone is prohibited from driving a “vehicle” while under the influence.

In truth, an improvised vehicle like that could even be more dangerous as its crashworthiness has not been tested.

He’s lucky that no one got hurt during the incident or the charges could have been graver.

Thankfully, the damage was limited to the parked car and probably his La-Z-boy.

The Devil Doesn’t Make You Drive Drunk

Aug 25

Los Angeles LawyerDUI, Personal Injury drunk driving fatalities No Comments

They say that alcohol is the devil’s brew and indeed, many of its effects have proven to be a trigger for bad things to happen and the consequences undoubtedly tragic.

Most recently in Castro Valley in San Francisco, a suspected drunk driver was killed after he tried to evade the Alameda County’s sheriff’s deputies.

He was first cited in Mission Boulevard driving his Lexus in reverse and when confronted by the authorities, he was slurring his speech. He then tried to take off and a chase happened from Highway 238 to Redwood Road.

The drunk driver lost control of his car and struck a parked car, a traffic light and a retaining wall. His Lexus flipped and he was ejected before it burst into flames. He was later on pronounced dead at the Eden Medical Center.

The man is just one of the many Americans who have become another statistic in the increasing numbers of drunk driving fatalities. In 2008, California had 1,029 alcohol-related deaths while the national figures yielded 11,700 fatalities in highway crashes involving a driver with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.

It’s disheartening and rather terrifying to think that despite the presence and enforcement of the DUI laws and the fact that people have been exposed to the reality of drunk driving, many motorists continue to do so.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), out of ten Americans, three will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives. There is too much danger on the roads because of these drunk drivers who refuse to be responsible about their choices.

All alcoholic beverages contain ethanol, which is considered as a psychoactive drug. A Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .06-.10 can already impair a person’s reasoning, reflexes, depth perception, and peripheral vision. The person’s behavior is also affected and he may start to exhibit disinhibition, blunted feelings, extroversion.

Some studies have also indicated that persons under the influence of alcohol have a reduced understanding of the consequences of their action or behavior.

This is the reason why a lot of drunk people, not just drunk drivers, do many stupid things they may regret later on.

Drunk drivers are more apt to speed, commit traffic violations and drive the wrong way not just because they’re mentally impaired but also because of a false sense of confidence.

The driver who died in Castro Valley most likely thought he was making a great escape but in the end, instead of losing the cops who were on his trail, he lost his life.

Driving while under the influence of alcohol is one of the worst decisions anyone could make, not just for himself but also for other people who are also on the road. Because in the end, you can’t say the devil made you do it because you only have yourself to blame.

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