Fatal Crash And Suspended License

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — The driver who fatally struck a Southern California woman and injured another woman Saturday as they were walking on a sidewalk has faced previous driving-related arrests.
Hossein Tabrizi, 52, has been arrested for at least one DUI and has had his license suspended twice.
Police are currently investigating whether he was driving under the influence the night he jumped a curb and slammed into the two women on the sidewalk on Main Street and Parkside Drive, but police said it would take some time.
Tabrizi is currently in a Martinez jail and was charged with the death of Sherry Hicks, a 52-year-old teacher from Santa Barbara.
“Based on witness statements, the vehicle was driving on a sidewalk before collision meets the elements of vehicular manslaughter,” said Walnut Creek police Lt. Lanny Edwards

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NORRISTOWN – A former Pennsylvania State Police trooper will be able to drive, albeit with restrictions, while he awaits trial for allegedly driving drunk while off-duty and slamming into another car, killing a woman, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Upper Dublin.
Under a bail agreement reached Monday between prosecutors and onetime Trooper Barry M. Searfoss Jr., 41, of Gavin Drive, Valley Township, Chester County, Searfoss’ driver’s license will be restored to allow him to drive, but only between 9 a.m. and sunset, according to the court order signed by Senior Judge William T. Nicholas.
Furthermore, if Searfoss obtains employment, he must submit his work schedule to the bail authority and can drive for purposes of work, even if it is beyond a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. timeframe, and he would have an additional hour before and after work to commute to and from home, according to the agreement.
The purpose of bail is to ensure a defendant’s compliance with the judicial system and to ensure the defendant’s appearance at court hearings

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August 26, 2012–Charleston, West Virginia–According to the Usphur County Sheriff’s Office, a man was arrested following a Sunday afternoon car accident in Buckhannon that left two people injured.
The suspect was arrested for a third DUI offense within ten years after he pulled out in front of another vehicle. Two men who were passengers in the suspect’s car were injured, although police have not yet released their names or the extent of their injuries. Police said that the suspect has incurred five or six total DUIs since his driver’s license was issued.
My sincere wishes for a speedy recovery go out to the victims in this accident.
DUI Facts and Statistics
According to both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs accounts for at least one-third of all car accidents. Between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., that number may increase to three-fourths of all collisions. DUIs are also responsible for at least one-third of all hit-and-run accidents involving pedestrians or bicyclists, and may be responsible for any number of single-car accidents. Drunk driving is still a leading cause of death for people under the age of 25

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Fewer Deaths Since Teen Driver Laws And Illegal Immigrants Licenses

The number of fatal crashes involving teen drivers statewide fell from nine in 2010 to four in 2011, continuing a downward trend since tougher laws for 16- and 17-year-old drivers were put in place four years ago, according to a study released Tuesday by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

One teen driver, Jacqueline Brice, a 16-year-old girl from Ridgefield, was killed in 2011, and three others were involved in fatal crashes, according to the report, which used the most recent statistics available from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Two teen drivers were killed in crashes in 2010. In 2007, a year before the laws were put in place, seven teen drivers were killed, and in 2004, 11 were killed.

There has been a 34 percent drop in crashes involving teens in Connecticut, compared to a national average drop of 26 percent.

“We are a national leader in teen safe driving, and we will continue to build on our excellent work,” said Melody A. Currency, the DMV commissioner. “This report shows the continued progress we are making thanks to the dedication of parents, teens and so many others around the state who share our goal of making the roads safe for everyone and preventing teen crashes and fatalities.”

The DMV report shows convictions for traffic infractions and for breaking the graduated driver’s licensing laws — which include passenger restrictions, a curfew, and mandatory license

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Unlicensed drivers are uninsured drivers. They’re also unsafe drivers. Giving illegal immigrants the chance to earn their driver’s license can increase road safety, cut down on the number of hit-and-runs, and allow a higher degree of accountability to these previously illegal drivers.

A study called “Unlicensed to Kill” by the AAA Foundation originally found that between 1993 and 1997, one in five fatal car crashes involved an unlicensed or improperly licensed driver.

The study was updated in 2003 and again in 2008. According to the study, between 2001 and 2005 an average of 8,030 drivers who were definitely or possibly driving with an invalid license or no license were involved in 7,679 fatal crashes, or 19.9 percent of all fatal crashes. This resulted in the deaths of 8,801 people.

That’s 20.5 percent of all deaths occurring in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

Unlicensed drivers also have a high hit-and-run chance as well. The same study stated that 41.1 percent of all hit-and-run drivers were driving illegally.

When it comes to road safety in relation to this proposed bill, it all comes down to a numbers game: Those who drive without licenses are more prone to getting into accidents, and our sizeable populations of illegal citizens are assumed to represent a percentage of those unlicensed drivers.

Simply put, licensing drivers puts them through a number of tests that determine whether they can safely operate a vehicle.

Granted, the above statistics from the “Unlicensed to Kill” study did not make any sort of connection between the number of fatal crashes involving drivers without licensing and their inability to operate a car. The correlation, simply by sheer numbers, has to be there: Both the Pew Hispanic Center and the Department of Homeland Security estimated that about 2.5 million illegal immigrants lived in California in 2009

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Driver’s Licensing Rules & Get Commercial Drivers Licenses

In a state frequently criticized as a haven for illegal immigrants seeking driver’s licenses, licensing officials here believe stricter rules are discouraging those from out of state.

After noticing a three-year surge in the number of out-of-state license applicants who lacked Social Security numbers, the Washington Department of Licensing last November began to require stricter proof of state residency.

Those changes — and additional tweaks three months ago — appear to be driving some people away.

Among out-of-state drivers seeking Washington licenses this year, 8 percent lacked a Social Security number, down from 16 percent last year.

Wait times in many locations — particularly the busiest offices in and around Seattle — are also dropping, licensing officials say.

“We believe that our process stopped a lot of people from trying to come here from another state where they weren’t eligible,” said Brad Benfield, department spokesman.

State law requires applicants for a driver’s license to live in the state

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Military leaders, trucking company executives and government officials say the state’s new program to make it easier for service members to get commercial driver’s licenses helps veterans and the trucking industry.

“We have over 500 openings for truck drivers,” said Rob Estes, president and CEO of Richmond-based Estes Express Lines, said Friday. “I cannot think of a better group to draw from to be truck drivers” than members of the U.S. military.

“This is a solution to a problem that, frankly, Washington has not been able to address adequately,” said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-7th.

The unemployment rate among veterans is “disgraceful,” Cantor said at an event Friday promoting the state’s Troops to Trucks initiative at Estes’ West Broad Street headquarters.

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has joined forces with the military and transportation-related businesses to put former servicemen and servicewomen, and members of the National Guard and reserves, to work in the transportation industry.

Through Virginia’s first-in-the-nation program, DMV is making it easier for personnel trained by the military to operate heavy vehicles to obtain civilian commercial driver’s licenses.

As a first step, DMV has certified the Army’s Fort Lee and the Marine base at Quantico as third-party testers to train more personnel to operate commercial motor vehicles, and the Virginia National Guard is joining the program.

So far, about a dozen soldiers at Fort Lee have gotten their commercial drivers licenses through the program, said Army Lt. Col. Arturo Calzadillas

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http://www.ezdrivingtest.com/blog/2012/09/09/drivers-licensing-rules-get-commercial-drivers-licenses10sept2012/

No Arrests In Checkpoints

PIEDMONT — Drivers heeded the warning of “Don’t Drink and Drive,” resulting in no arrests at the Piedmont-Oakland “Avoid the 21 Double DUI Checkpoint” held over Labor Day weekend.
Eight drivers were evaluated by police, two for sobriety and six for driver’s license violations, Piedmont’s interim police Chief Scott Wyatt said. Three citations for driving license violations were issued, with 556 vehicles screened at the checkpoint.
Wyatt said no vehicles were towed “as we were able to secure drivers with valid driver’s licenses for vehicle removal from the checkpoint.”
The checkpoint took place in the 1200 block of Grand Avenue, an area determined as having a high occurrence of DUI collisions and arrests, said Piedmont police Sgt. Robert Wells. It was run on both sides of the thoroughfare.
Wyatt said traffic flow during the checkpoint period was sparse and slow.
“Three outside agency officers left at approximately 2230 hours (10:30 p.m.), and the traffic flow was averaging 40 to 45 vehicles per hour. The decision was made to terminate the checkpoint at 0002 hours (12:02 a.m.) on Sept. 3.”
Piedmont’s checkpoint was to run from 7 p.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday.
The Avoid the 21 events were staffed by officers from Fremont, Dublin, Livermore, Piedmont and Oakland. According to Jan Ford, a public information officer for Alameda County law enforcement, one police jurisdiction ran a DUI warrants sweep on Sunday, with officers

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Police say a wrong way driver caused a head-on crash Monday morning on the Lloyd Expressway.
It happened around 5:40 a.m. near I-164. Police say 47-year-old Lazara Correa was driving under the influence, and driving in the wrong lanes when he hit a car head-on. The other driver, a young woman, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Law enforcement say extra patrols and sobriety checkpoints around Labor Day are necessary to try and keep these kind of accidents from happening.
Indiana State Police were here last night conducting a sobriety checkpoint outside of Castle High School, along 261 and Vann Road. It’s the second of three they’re doing over this Labor Day weekend and they’ll be out again Monday night, somewhere in Warrick County to try to catch drunk drivers in the act.
“We have people out there looking, so we’re doing our job,” said ISP Sergeant Tom Weber.
Weber looks over data showing where in our region, DUI arrests and alcohol related crashes happen most before manning another sobriety checkpoint Monday night.
“If we have to, we’ll take people to jail and that’s part of our job also,” Weber said. “We’d much rather take

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No arrests were made during a DUI checkpoint Sunday night in Santee.
Deputies at the checkpoint, which was held from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at 8756 Mast Blvd., administered one field sobriety test, but no arrests were made, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies issued eight non-DUI related citations, including a citation that was issued to a passenger for possession of marijuana.
Of the 738 vehicles that encountered the checkpoint, 738 were contacted and 16 were sent to a secondary area for further inspection, according to officials. Four vehicles were impounded

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Letting Illegal Immigrants Get Driver’s Licenses

Having illegal immigrants apply for driver’s licenses ensures they will be tested, making them safer drivers and more likely to be insured.
The debate over whether to offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants has a usefully neurological angle: It’s a way of defining “insanity” as the process of shooting yourself in the foot in the expectation that someone else will scream in pain.
The people who are supposedly afflicted with the pain are undocumented immigrants, who are theoretically deprived of the right to drive on our roads. The injury inflicted on society arises from the fact that many of the supposed targets of this punishment drive anyway. They just do so without training, without testing and without insurance.
Does this sound rational to you? If so, here’s your straitjacket.

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he supports the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to have driver’s licenses as long as they have been in the United States for a number of years without committing other crimes.
Baca’s comments Thursday come as Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has also expressed support for driver’s license for illegal immigrants.
Baca said such licenses should only be issued after illegal immigrants fill out comprehensive applications, similar to those for citizenship. The sheriff also said the licenses should be up for renewal annually, and be noticeably different than those issued to citizens.
“There’s enough potential for Chief Beck’s idea for it to be explored,” Baca said Thursday.
The sheriff has expressed openness to illegal immigrants being issued driver’s licenses before. In 2002, he supported a proposal to allow the licenses, but to imprint them with a special marker such as the letter “I” for immigrant so police

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants could get California driver’s licenses if a bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown becomes law.
The state Assembly Thursday approved a bill that would allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue licenses to undocumented immigrants eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy.
The landmark bill would allow immigrants to use documents they received through the federal program as proof of legal residence at the DMV.
Democratic Assemblyman Gil Cedilla of Los Angeles said he wrote AB2189 to make roads safer, and allow young immigrants to drive to school

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California Driving Licenses For Some Illegal Immigrants

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a late-night debate Thursday, the Legislature is handing to Gov. Jerry Brown a bill to grant driver’s licenses to young illegal immigrants granted temporary work permits by the federal government. The Assembly on Thursday night passed AB 2189 in a 55-21 vote after the Senate approved the bill in a 25-7 vote Wednesday, adding to the more than 230 bills that at mid-day Friday were on the governor’s desk on the Legislature’s final day of its yearly session. The passage marked a partial victory for outgoing Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who has sought for years to grant driver licenses to all California drivers regardless of their immigration status. Also being debated Friday was a measure that would have the state ask federal authorities not to deport law-abiding, tax-paying illegal immigrants

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SACRAMENTO, Aug 30 (Reuters) – California lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday to allow some young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children to obtain driving licenses, in a move that could appeal to Hispanic voters in the heavily Democratic state. The bill, which passed the state Assembly by a 55-15 vote before being sent to the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, was introduced following the announcement of a federal program to relax deportation rules and grant some young immigrants temporary legal status in the United States. “It is a victory for those who were brought here through no fault of their own, played by the rules, and are only asking to be included in and contribute to American society,” the bill’s
sponsor, Assembly member Gilbert Cedillo, said in a statement

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The California state Assembly on Thursday voted in favor of a bill that would permit the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants who are eligible for work permits under a new policy handed down from the Obama administration. The bill is on its way to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk to be signed into law. Fox News reports, “Democratic Assemblyman Gil Cedillo [pictured above, next to photo of California's state capitol] of Los Angeles said he wrote AB 2189 to make roads safer, and allow young immigrants to drive to school and work.” The bill passed in California’s Assembly by a vote of 55-15 after it passed in California’s Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 25-7. The only other states to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants are New Mexico, Utah, and Washington. California’s bill is in response to a June announcement from the Obama administration of a federal program to ease deportation rules and allow some immigrants to gain temporary legal status in the United States. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the new federal program announced by the Obama administration, applies to immigrants who arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday, are younger than 30 years of age, have been living in the United States for at least five years, and either are in school, have graduated, or have served in the military. As of August 15, those who are eligible may file a document entitled “Request for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.” They will then be granted a work permit for two

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http://www.ezdrivingtest.com/blog/2012/09/04/california-driving-licenses-for-some-illegal-immigrants05sept2012/

Driver’s License,Sobriety Checkpoint Arrests

Four people were arrested Friday night at driver’s license and sobriety checkpoints in Temecula and Murrieta, police said Saturday.
The checkpoint near the intersection of Winchester and Nicolas roads in Temecula began at 9 p.m. Friday and lasted until 3 a.m. Saturday, police said. One person was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Police cited four unlicensed drivers and towed 10 vehicles.
Two drivers were arrested on suspicion of DUI at a checkpoint on Clinton Keith Road just west of Interstate 215, police said. Officers arrested a passenger

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Five people were arrested at a sobriety and driver’s license checkpoint Saturday night in Lake Elsinore, police said Sunday.
Police screened drivers until 3 a.m. Sunday at the checkpoint near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Lakeside High Way, according to police.
Four drivers were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, police said.
The drivers were identified as Lake Elsinore residents Patricia Esquival, 31; Nicholas Mavre, 26; Jeremiah Steimle, 41; and Julius Cheek, 33, of Wildomar, police said

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Six people were arrested at driver’s license and sobriety checkpoints Friday night in Encinitas and Poway, sheriff’s officials said Saturday.
Five drivers were arrested on suspicion of driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol during a checkpoint deputies operated from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 1:30 a.m. Saturday in the 1800 block of South Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas, authorities said.
Deputies issued 19 citations and towed 10 vehicles during the checkpoint, sheriff’s officials said.
One driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI during the checkpoint between 6 p.m. and midnight at 14300 block of Poway Road in Poway, deputies said

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