Articles Posted in Boston Drunk Driving Accidents

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It was nearly 40 years ago that Doris Aiken sat in her kitchen and read with a broken heart the story of two teenagers, siblings, a 17-year-old girl and 19-year-old young man, who were killed by a 22-year-old drunk driver. She knew the teens distantly, but as a mother herself, she couldn’t help but feel a profound ache. As a journalist who hosted a local television program, she also sensed this was a story worth telling.beerbottles

But as she began delving further into this pressing social issue, she discovered the attitudes of police and local prosecutors were shockingly laissez-faire. When she sat down with the local district attorney to ask whether he would press for a severe sentence for the driver, his response astounded her.

He laughed. Then he answered that his office didn’t take away licenses or jail those who were arrested for drunk driving. He underscored that this was, after all, an accident. “He didn’t mean to do it,” the D.A. explained of the man with a blood-alcohol level of twice the legal limit and an open beer can between his knees. “He probably feels very bad about it.” The D.A. wouldn’t even return the calls of the mother of the two victims. Continue reading

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A sports bar in Rockville, Maryland is slated to surrender its license and permanently shutter its doors after it allegedly over-served a customer who then got in a vehicle and crashed it, killing an on-duty police officer from Montgomery County. beergarden

Twenty-four-year-old Officer Noah Leotta had volunteered that night to work for a special holiday drunk driving patrol. He suffered severe injuries when the driver, Luis Gustavo Reluzco, side-swiped the cruiser on December 3, 2016 as he was in the middle of conducting a traffic stop. Leotta died a week later of his injuries. Reluzco, 47, has admitted he was downing beers and bourbon for approximately three hours before the crash. He later pleaded guilty to a single charge of vehicular manslaughter, and is awaiting sentencing. He could receive up to three years.

Now, according to NBC-4 Washington, business administrators for the establishment that served Reluzco alcohol that night, a Hooters franchise, have agreed to close their doors and forfeit their liquor license. As it stood, the Department of Liquor Control’s Board of License Commissioners had scheduled a hearing for this month to weigh evidence in consideration of revoking the license. The restaurant simply beat the board to the punch, as the case against it was strong.  Continue reading

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Law enforcement in Massachusetts say driving under the influence is a growing problem in the state, particularly when it comes to the influence of illicit and prescription drugs. pillsbrownbottle

A recent analysis by FOX 25 WFXT reveals drugged driving violations have climbed 42 percent since 2011. That’s compared to a 26 percent hike in alcohol drunk driving arrests and citations issued during the same time frame.

Although thousands of residents in the Commonwealth are legally allowed to use marijuana, there is technically no legal limit for how much is too much. Part of that has to do with the fact that there is no form of accurate testing for the drug that will reveal impairment. Regular users may have higher levels of the drug in their system, even though they aren’t impaired. Just as easily, someone might be impaired despite having lower levels of THC (the active ingredient) in their system.  Continue reading

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Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have sailed in like a white horse, ready to save us all from the scourge of drunk driving injuries and deaths. At least, that’s the narrative these services are selling. Proof that it’s actually working, however, is conflicting. phone

Take, for example, the recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests these serves have had little to on impact on the national overall rate of drunk driving accidents, injuries or deaths. Drunk driving fatalities have hung steadily at around 10,000 for many years, though they have dipped significantly since the 1970s and 1980s.

Uber broke out onto the scene in 2009 and has largely been popular in bigger cities, such as Boston. But unfortunately, as the study authors discovered, the rates of drunk driving in those locations hasn’t gone down. The reason, researchers say, has to do with the fact those who are impaired aren’t willing to pay for the expense of a ride.  Continue reading

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Deputy John Robert Kotfila Jr. had just received a 911 call about a wrong-way driver on a stretch of Florida highway. It was nearly 3 a.m. on a Saturday. He had just left a traffic crash investigation and spotted the vehicle, traveling east in the westbound lanes. highway9

Another vehicle was ahead of the deputy. The wrong-way driver wasn’t slowing. The 30-year-old deputy took quick action to get in front of the other vehicle and got her to slow down and move to the side of the road. The deputy and the wrong-way driver hit head-on. The 31-year-old wrong-way driver, who was drunk, died at the scene. The officer was pronounced dead at the hospital. The 41-year-old woman in the vehicle behind the deputy is convinced he took the action he did to save her life.

It was later revealed the wrong-way driver had been drunk.

Now, Kotfila’s family is fighting for change in Massachusetts, his home state. Kotfila was originally from Falmouth. He worked as a crash investigator for the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office in south Florida at the time o the crash. His family gathered recently at the Massachusetts State House to press state lawmakers to pass a drunk driving law that would require in-vehicle breathalyzers for first-time DUI offenders in the Commonwealth. Continue reading

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After work, many people like to head to the bar on the way home to have a drink or two with friends.  While you can do this in Boston, or across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you aren’t going to find any drink specials or other discounts like you do in other parts of the country due to a roughly 30-year-old law prohibiting bars and restaurants from offering happy hour specials.

red-bull-boat-359586-mThe reason for this law, one that a number of other states also enacted, was to cut down on the number of drunk driving accidents that had reached alarming rates.  It was fairly easy to connect people getting discount drinks before their drive home with the number of drunk driving accidents, some of which are fatal or result in serious personal injury. Continue reading

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Most people who live in an urban area such as Boston would probably say they live in the city with the worst drivers in America.  If you lived in Boston and gave that answer, you would be correct, according to a recent news feature from Yahoo Finance. The claim is based upon report put out every year by the insurance industry, and it includes the number of accidents and the number of drunk driving accidents in proportion to the population and the number of drivers.

The report, which is compiled by the insurance industry, is supposed to showcase the safest cities to drive in America, and while there any many cities at the top of the list, one city has to be at the bottom for being the most dangerous and in 2016, that “honor” falls on the city of Boston. beerhand Continue reading

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Revere, Massachusetts, located a few miles from Boston on the other side of the Mystic River, has been undergoing a great deal of construction for a long time.  A community that prides itself on having the first public beach in the United States, has, like a lot of the greater Boston area, allowed its roads to fall into a state of disrepair.

wrong-way-sign-232552-mWhile roadwork is obviously necessary, it can create traffic problems, and it can be very dangerous for those actually doing the work.  It is for this reason that we see so many public service campaigns to get people to slow down and drive safe around work zones.  These ads often feature the children of road workers asking drivers to keep their parents safe. Continue reading

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Donald Middleton of Texas was known by local authorities in Houston, TX to drink to excess and then get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. But it wasn’t his first conviction that stopped him. It wasn’t even his second, third or fourth. driving3

In fact, as The New York Times reported, Middleton had eight prior convictions and still technically had a driver’s license that was valid. But now, after his ninth conviction, not only did the judge revoke his driver’s license for life, she sentenced him to life in prison. The 56-year-old won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 86-years-old – 30 years from now.

Of course, we know that repeat DUI offenders pose a substantial threat on the road. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), one-third of all drivers arrested and convicted of drunk driving are repeat offenders. AAA DUI Justice Link reports that the risk of a driver with one or more DUI convictions becoming involved in a fatal crash is 1.4 times higher than for a driver who has no prior DUI convictions.  Continue reading

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A new campaign is underway by a Boston-based company called Cheers to once again make happy hour legal in Boston. happyhour

An online petition for the move garnered more than 8,500 signatures in just a few days. The petition states that when Massachusetts banned happy hour in 1984, it zapped the “happy” out of the handful of hours after work, which instead became “meh.” Massachusetts is one of eight states in the country that bans happy hour, which is traditionally a time when bars and restaurants lower their drink prices to extend deals to those just getting off work. Other states, including Illinois and Kansas, used to have happy hour bans, but recently overturned those laws.

The question is whether a prohibition on happy hour bans actually does anything to reduce excessive drinking or save lives. There is some evidence to suggest that it does not. Also interesting is the fact that many bars and other establishments are actually in favor of such bans because it allows them to keep their drink prices high, and avoid getting into a happy hour price war with the new up-and-coming bar down the street. However, there are others that say they are bad for business, especially in neighborhoods where patrons are more likely to walk or take a taxi home rather than drive.  Continue reading

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