Tag Archives: driving under the influence

As of July 1, 2020, Tennessee joins 42 other states in the Interstate Driver License Compact. According to the National Center for Interstate Compacts,  The Driver License Compact is an interstate compact used by States of the United States to exchange information concerning license suspensions and traffic violations of non-residents and forward them to the state where they [the offenders] are licensed—known as the home state. Its theme is “One Driver, One License, One Record.” The home state would treat ... Read More »

Apparently drive-through bars are for real and being used more frequently during this pandemic!  For instance, Johnny’s Bar and Casino became the first drive-through bar in Great Falls, Montana. Fortunately, the business already had a drive through window through which it was previously selling food. However, once receiving approval from the State of Montana, Johnny’s Bar and Casino began selling growlers, bar drinks, and beer through the window complete with drive-through bartenders. One may learn more about this drive-through bar ... Read More »

According to recently released statistics from the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP), Missouri roads were safer this New Year’s holiday compared to last year. There were zero deaths on the road this year and no injuries. There were 11 deaths were recorded last year. Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) arrests by Highway Patrol troopers were markedly lower than last year. Troopers made 56 arrests for DWI in 2020. Last year, troopers made 130 arrests. Sgt. Jeff Kinder of the MSHP credits ... Read More »

As reported by Patch.com, on May 30, 2019, Long Island, NY Congresswoman Kathleen Rice introduced a package of three bills that would combat impaired and distracted driving.  The End Drunk Driving Act will require that within 10 years, all new cars sold in the U.S. come equipped with advanced DWI-prevention technology.  According to the Garden City Democrat, “… nearly 15,000 were killed in 2018 because of an impaired or distracted driver – these are deadly and tragic epidemics that have ... Read More »

DWI enforcement in St. Louis, Missouri, has come to rely increasingly on the estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) number produced by an aging technology. The Alco-Sensor IV (ASIV), manufactured by Intoximeters, is a portable breathalyzer device used by police officers to test driver’s the police suspect are intoxicated. At 1/3 the price of other evidentiary devices, police departments love the ASIV. The other advantage St. Louis area police find in the ASIV is that it is portable. All other evidentiary ... Read More »

Massachusetts defense attorneys and prosecutors have reached a tentative agreement, pending approval and modification by the court, regarding sanctions imposed against the government for refusing to disclose court-ordered evidence during state-wide litigation challenging the reliability of the Dräger 9510 breath test machines. Under a previous court order, breath tests results were presumptively excluded from evidence at trial if the machine had last been calibrated between June 1, 2011 and September 14, 2014. As a result of government misconduct, however, where ... Read More »

District Attorney offices throughout the Commonwealth continue negotiations with representatives of the defense bar regarding the admissibility of breath test results at trial. Some possibilities include expanding the time of presumptively excluded breath tests to include all tests performed since the Dräger 9510 machines were put into service in 2012 through at least 2017. Another potential outcome is to give both prosecutors and defense counsel online access to all maintenance and service records for each machine. We expect that all ... Read More »

The crime of Driving Under the Influence (DUI, DWI, OWI, etc.) may be committed by driving while impaired due to any intoxicant or combination of intoxicants.  These include, among other intoxicants, alcohol, prescribed medication or illegal drugs.   A 2016 study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (“GHSA”) shows a trend in fatal drug related crashes surpassing deadly accidents involving alcohol. Experts say this trend derives from states legalizing marijuana combined with the current opioid epidemic in America. According to ... Read More »

In Commonwealth v. Nascimento, SJC-12442 (June 5, 2018) the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently corrected a long-standing practice of the lower courts sentencing drivers operating on a license suspended for administrative reasons related to OUI (such as breath test failure or refusal) to the same mandatory jail time required for someone operating on a license suspended for an OUI conviction. The statute mandates a minimum sixty-day sentence for anyone convicted of operating on a license that has been suspended on ... Read More »

The latest hearing regarding the Massachusetts defense bar’s challenge to the Dräger 9510 breath test machine was held by Judge Brennan in Concord on Thursday, February 15, 2018. At that hearing, both Brennan and the defense bar, represented by Joseph Bernard, expressed their dismay that discovery previously withheld by the government continued to trickle out or had even been lost “due to dysfunction at the OAT [Office of Alcohol Testing].” The government pressed Brennan for a schedule that would give ... Read More »