Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

According to a recent news report from WCBV 5, Boston police officers arrested a 37-year-old woman for after allegedly hitting a pedestrian. Authorities say she was operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor (OUI), and her children were in her car at the time of her arrest. Prosecutors filed eight total charges against defendant.

Witnesses say, after police pulled defendant over, she sat in her car drinking from a mini bottle of vodka. Police reportedly found six miniature bottles of vodka and empty Red Bull cans in her car at the time of her arrest. She also allegedly had her two children, ages six years and six months, in her minivan at time of the suspected drunk driving accident involving a pedestrian.

The civilian who initially called 911 said this was the craziest thing she had ever seen. She described defendant weaving along the roadway in East Boston before hitting a 62-year-old woman who was on the sidewalk. After hitting victim, the minivan kept moving and dragged victim toward a military vehicle parked at an auto repair shop. The victim was pinned underneath the military vehicle as the minivan kept going, until it finally came to a stop after hitting a tree.
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According to a recent news report from the Washington Post, a woman is alleged to have driven up to a security gate at the White House, and, while exiting the car, said she had a bomb and placed a package on the ground. Police say she then got back in her car and tried to drive away from pursuing members of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service.

The United States has Secret Service Special Agents, with whom we are all familiar and whose responsibilities include guarding the President and other public officials, and it also has a Uniformed Division (SSUD). The Uniformed Division of the Secret Service consists of police officers who guard facilities and embassies while driving around the city on bicycles and in marked squad cars. These officers are not Special Agents, but they have arrest powers similar to members of other police forces.

Members of the SSUD attempted to stop suspect, when she hit them with her car before fleeing the scene. At this point, bomb disposal teams, SSUD personal, and other first responders blocked off the scene and attempted to inspect the suspicious package. At this point, two high level Special Agents, one of whom is on President Obama’s personal security detail, arrived at the scene after coming from a local bar in what SSUD officers believed to be an intoxicated state. They drove through the police tape and, according to some witnesses, actually drove over the suspicious package, while other witnesses say they only drove very close to the package. SSUD officers attempted to administer standardized field sobriety tests to the two agents but were ordered to released the men and let them go home without submitting to any testing.
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While drunk driving accidents and deaths are on the overall decline – both in Massachusetts and nationwide – there is another growing concern, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration: Drugged drivers.

Two recent studies by the agency point to this fact.

One of those is the most recent Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers, which revealed the number of motorists in the U.S. with alcohol in their blood declined by almost one-third in the last eight years. The figure has dropped by more than two-thirds since 1973.
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Super Bowl Sunday is a lot of people’s favorite day of the year. You may be hosting your own party or going to one of the many Super Bowl parties hosted by friends and family. While the day can be a lot of fun, for many that fun involves drinking a lot of beer and then getting behind the wheel of a car for the drive home.

If you are going to be drinking alcohol on Super Bowl Sunday, we urge you to drink responsibly and use a designated driver. A drunk driving accident is not the way anyone wants to end the night.
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We often see advertisements for beer and liquor showing everyone having a good time, then some fine print saying the maker of that particular alcoholic beverage urges people to drink responsibility. As we know from the thousands of drunk driving accidents each year, many do not take this advice.

A recent news feature from Fox News looks at how energy drinks may encourage drunk driving. One study cited in the article involved a survey of over 350 college and university students. Of those surveyed, 107 reported to drink alcohol and energy drinks together. This should come as no surprise, given the popularity of drinks that mix energy drinks and alcohol at many bars.

Within that group of 107, nearly 60 percent said they had driven a motor vehicle when they knew they were too intoxicated to drive. Among those who only drank alcohol and did not mix it with energy drinks, there was a less than 50 percent finding of knowingly driving while intoxicated.
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When we think of drunk driving, we normally think of a drunk driver getting arrested by the police, and hopefully before the driver caused a serious alcohol-related car accident.

However, according to a recent news article in the Boston Globe, a Massachusetts state trooper has been arrested for drunk driving on more than one occasion without being terminated. This trooper’s first arrest for drunk driving was before he became a police officer at the age of 19, after crashing his car into a tree.

The next time he was arrested, he was found passed out in his car with the ignition still on and a partially full can of beer on the floor of the vehicle. This second DUI arrested occurred in 2012, when he was a Massachusetts state trooper. After this drunk driving arrest, he admitted to drinking after a softball game, then went to a local bar and drank more alcohol, went to yet another bar, and then tried to drive home but passed out on the way. Authorities reported that when the arresting officer asked him for his driver’s license, he handed over a credit card instead.
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