If you need any more reasons not to drink and drive, consider this: A driving-under-the-influence conviction is a financial wrecking ball. A typical DUI costs about $10,000 by the time you pay bail, fines, fees and insurance, even if you didn’t hit anything or hurt anybody.

A fine is just the start of what you’ll pay for a drunken-driving conviction. Insurance-rate increases, legal bills, alcohol treatment and licensing fees can push the cost into five figures.

The penalties are intended to be discouraging. Alcohol played a role in nearly 40% of U.S. automobile fatalities in 2005. That’s 16,885 deaths, a figure nearly unchanged over the past decade, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But states are cracking down. The last of the 50 states have lowered their thresholds for DUI to 0.08% blood-alcohol content. Police arrested 1.37 million people last year for driving under alcohol’s grip, about one in every 140 licensed drivers, the FBI says.

But forget the humiliation and hassle for now. Forget the toll on lives. Just look at what a DUI does to your wallet:

Bail. You’ll have to shell out bail to get released after your arrest. Cost: $150-$2,500.

(Costs shown in this article are for first-time DUI offenders. Costs and penalties are often more severe if you’re a repeat offender or your blood-alcohol content is above 0.15%.)

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/DUIThe$10000RideHome.aspx

Kelly Medora, a petite preschool teacher who weighed about 118 pounds, went out with a friend in North Beach one Saturday night in 2005 for some fun.

Instead, San Francisco police officer Christopher Damonte, who weighed about 250 pounds, arrested her for jaywalking, twisted her arm behind her back and broke it with an audible crack.

Although Damonte and the city denied wrongdoing, the city recently mailed Medora a check for $235,000, the largest amount ever to settle a lawsuit claiming San Francisco police used excessive force not involving a weapon.

The Office of Citizen Complaints, meanwhile, has found that Damonte used excessive force in the incident and that another officer failed to investigate Medora’s complaint. Damonte faces a disciplinary hearing at the Police Commission and potential punishment including dismissal. [Read more →]

Pleasanton police in coordination with other law enforcement agencies impounded 15 vehicles during a sobriety checkpoint Monday night, according to the Police Department.

The checkpoint was set up on westbound Bernal Avenue at Pleasanton Avenue from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., police said.

Livermore and Dublin police, the California Highway Patrol and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office aided in the effort, screening 1134 vehicles.

A total of 15 vehicles were impounded for either driving under the influence or driving as an unlicensed or suspended driver, police said. Four drivers were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, and 14 drivers were given citations for driver’s license violations, according to police.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving handed out information to drivers who were stopped at the checkpoint, which was funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Safety Administration, according to police.

Richie Sambora DUI Bust: Mug Shot Photo From California ArrestBy Tina SimsMar 26, 2008 Richie Sambora has been popped for suspicion of driving under the influence in California, according to a report from the AOL Entertainment website TMZ.Com. The report notes that there is no indication of drugs, but according to the report police believe he had been drinking.Richie Sambora DUI Bust: Mug Shot Photo From California ArrestRichie Sambora DUI Bust: Mug Shot Photo From California ArrestAccording to the report he refused to take a breathalyzer test, and instead opted for a blood test. He was stopped by police at around 11:00 pm and he had made bail and is now out after snapping this lovely mug shot. He did have a woman in the car with him but her name has not been released.***Sambora has recently done two stints in rehab in the last year. He entered a treatment facility in June of last year in Los Angeles. After his weeklong stay in the facility, Sambora admitted to NBC’s Matt Lauer, “I was just drinking too much, and I needed to get my life together. I’m still in therapy, but it’s good; it’s great. I feel fine.”

Gold medal-winning Olympic decathlete Bill Toomey has pleaded no-contest to a charge of driving under the influence after crashing his Mercedes-Benz into two parked cars.

San Luis Obispo police arrested Toomey, who won the 1968 Olympic decathlon for the United States, after the incident on May 24, 2007.

The 69-year-old Toomey is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.

Deputy District Attorney Sheryl Woolcott said Tuesday that the standard sentence for typical first-time DUI offenders includes two days in jail, three years of probation and attending an alcohol prevention program.

Information from: The Tribune, http://www.sanluisobispo.com

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KELSO, Wash. — When a man who was suspected of drunken driving in Longview refused to give blood and urine samples he was taken to a hospital.

His lawyer says he was held down kicking and screaming for a blood draw. And a tube was inserted into his bladder to withdraw the urine.

He sued Cowlitz County. A settlement was reached Friday in which he was paid $15,000, without authorities admitting they did anything wrong.

The 37-year-old man, Matthew Clifford Arthur, was on probation at the time of the arrest in November and was required to undergo screening for drugs and alcohol. When he refused, his lawyer says he should have been taken to the jail instead of the hospital.

Source

OAKLAND - In a wreck that shocked even police, a gusher from a fire hydrant hit by a suspected drunk driver’s car Monday almost drowned a passenger in the vehicle.

The passenger, Walker Tiller, 59, of Oakland, who was knocked unconscious by the impact, was rescued from the flooding 1993 Pontiac Bonneville by a rookie police officer and two residents of the area, police said.

Traffic Sgt. Steve Paich, a 10-year veteran, said Tuesday, “I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.”

He polled other veteran officers, including one with 30 years experience, who said the same thing.

Source

“For the car to be perfectly positioned over the hydrant and the water gushing in is just bizarre,” Paich said.

The driver, Drexel Mitchell, 55, of Oakland, who police said has a suspended license as the result of prior driving under the influence convictions, was arrested.

AP - The mayor of Colma has resigned over ethics issues after serving just three months.

Mayor Larry Formalejo told a packed public meeting last night that as a city councilman he committed an ethical breach involving the drunken-driving arrest of his son, but didn’t say what he had done.

Formalejo said that he “acted as a father, not as a councilman.”

He will remain on the city council in the small city of cemeteries and card rooms south of San Francisco.

There were almost 200,000 people arrested for DUI in California alone last year. Out of those numbers there were just over 180,000 were misdemeanor offenses and a large portion of those cases were overturned by DUI lawyers.

DUI is an acronym that stands for ‘Driving Under the Influence’. A person is guilty of a DUI if they decide to operate a motor vehicle after the consumption of alcoholic beverages or any chemical or controlled substances. In California, there are a wide variety of laws that involve intoxicated individuals. California has some of the most severe penalties for driving under the influence in all of the United States.

The two major factors in deciding the penalty for a drunken driving offense in California depends on how much alcohol was in your system and whether or not you are a repeat offender. If it is your first DUI offense, then you will most likely avoid jail time, however most counties in California will provide you with an alternative such as trash pick up. If this is your second arrest with a ten year period, then the chances of you going to jail are much higher.

In California you cannot drive a motor vehicle if your BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) is over .08%. After you’ve been pulled over, the officer will administer a test giving you the choice of blood, breath or urine. Breath tests are the most common, and the device used to measure your BAC with your breath is called a breathalyzer.

Many times people don’t know when ‘enough is enough’ while they’ve been drinking. Because of this, getting behind the wheel puts them in even greater jeopardy. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to limit your alcohol intake to only one drink an hour. After you’ve consumed an alcoholic drink, follow that with a full glass of water. This will help reduce your BAC and keep you under the legal limit.