DUI News Digest

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – “A person has physical control of their vehicle if their keys are in the ignition,” says Sergeant Jason Reber, of Susquehanna Township Police. Physical control is a key phrase in determining if someone could be given a DUI while parked. “Let’s say they’re in a parking lot, and at that time they decide to sleep it off, but they leave the keys in the car to stay warm. By law, they can still be charged with ... Read More »

A police officer in Kentucky was killed by a driver allegedly under the influence while she was conducting a traffic stop on Christmas Eve. Detective Deidre Mengedoht, 32, pulled over a pickup truck in Louisville and was subsequently hit by a different semi-truck. “The semi pushed the police car into the truck she had stopped,” Louisville police chief Steve Conrad said in a news conference Monday. “There were four people in the pickup truck. None of them were seriously injured. Unfortunately the detective’s car ... Read More »

More than a quarter of a million people illegally present in the United States were removed from the country in fiscal year 2018, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Approximately half of the 158,000 people arrested by ICE — 80,730 — had been charged or convicted of driving under the influence, according to the agency’s annual report. The second-highest category for arrests was for crimes related to “dangerous drugs,” followed by traffic offenses. Read More »

TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on a North Carolina bus crash that injured 13 students (all times local): A North Carolina woman has been charged with driving while impaired after a crash with a school bus that sent 13 students to the hospital. The North Carolina Highway Patrol issued a news release saying Kimberly Ann Austin was also charged with driving left of center. The 56-year-old Taylorsville resident was being treated Monday afternoon at a hospital. It wasn’t clear ... Read More »

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) – Four children have tragically passed away after a collision in Greenville County, and the man accused of driving the car is being held in jail on no bond after he was accused of driving under the influence. The Greenville County Coroner said three young children were killed in a car crash on East Mountain Creek Church Road early in the morning on Friday, December 7. The crash happened just after midnight. Troopers with the South Carolina ... Read More »

TUPELO – Tupelo city attorney Ben Logan was arrested for drunk driving Friday night. The Mississippi Highway Patrol confirmed that Logan, 55, had been charged with DUI-refusal. No other details were released. Even though Logan was arrested in Lee County, he was never booked into the Lee County Jail. Reports say Logan was leaving a Christmas party when he was stopped at a safety checkpoint. Read More »

DAYTON, Tenn. (AP) – Authorities say a Tennessee bus driver transporting students to school was charged with driving under the influence after students on board called parents to say he was driving erratically. Rhea County Sheriff’s Detective Rocky Potter told news outlets that 58-year-old Michael Ledbetter was arrested Wednesday morning after failing a field sobriety test. Read More »

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The California Highway Patrol arrested 58 people for alleged intoxicated driving in San Diego County during its annual Thanksgiving holiday enforcement period this year. CHP officers made the arrests between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Sunday in the agency’s jurisdiction in the county, which includes all freeways, as well as roads in unincorporated areas. All available officers were to be deployed to catch drunk or drug- impaired drivers, speeders and other traffic violators during the ... Read More »

An off-duty NYPD officer was arrested in Brooklyn early Sunday after he smashed into a parked car while driving the wrong way on a one-way street, police said. Officer Harry Sepulveda, 31, slammed into the unoccupied car at Wythe Avenue and North 12th Street, in Greenpoint, around 2 a.m., according to authorities. He was charged with driving while ability impaired and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test, authorities said. The question of whether Sepulveda was drunk or high on drugs ... Read More »

RAINBOW, Calif. — A possibly inebriated driver heading the wrong way on Interstate 15 near Rainbow caused a crash that killed both him and the driver of the car he struck, a California Highway Patrol officer said Saturday. The wrong-way driver was identified as a 23-year-old Lake Elsinore man, and the victim in the other car was a 20-year-old woman from Murrieta, according to CHP Officer Mark Latulippe. Their names were not released. Dispatchers received a call just after 11 p.m. ... Read More »