Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The National Transportation Safety Board recommends reducing the limit from .08 to .05. Some say it would save lives. Others say it's unreasonable. What do you think? Tell us in the comments section below.
Do you think Illinois needs stricter guidelines for the blood-alcohol threshold for those driving under the influence? On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended states lower the blood-alcohol threshold for driving under the influence from .08 to .05 percent. About 10,000 deaths a year are related to drunken driving. The NTSB says the lower limit would save 500 to 800 lives a year. Officials at the American Beverage Institute called the proposal "ludicrous." It said the average woman could reach the 0.05 percent limit by having one drink. Secretary of State Jesse White said the lowered alcohol limit needs "further study," White's spokesman told the Daily Herald. In 2011, there were 942 DUI arrests in McHenry County…
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Walter J. Depner now faces felony charges for allegations that he drove drunk this past Sunday, according to the Daily Herald.
A 61-year-old Mount Prospect man convicted of driving drunk and killing four Crystal Lake family members in 1999 now faces upgraded charges for allegations that he drove drunk this past Sunday, McHenry County prosecutors told the Daily Herald. Walter J. Depner, who was originally charged with misdemeanors for the Sunday incident, now faces felony charges of aggravated driving under the influence and driving while license revoked, according to the article. He is expected in court Thursday morning. Depner was out on parole prior to his arrest on Sunday and served 12 years of a 14-year sentence for the DUI-related crash that killed Eva Burleson, 34; and her three children, Daniel, 13; Tiffany, 11; and Dallis, 7, according to the Northwest …
Sunday, December 30, 2012
If you insist on driving after a few drinks, here's what you should know about how alcohol affects your system—and your criminal record
Do you know how many drinks you can have before you're in danger of being busted for drunken driving? When police pull over drivers for suspected drunken driving, officers ask them to perform field sobriety tests and to take a breath test to measure blood alcohol content. A BAC test measures the percentage of alcohol present in a person's bloodstream. The legal limit in Illinois is 0.08. According to the Virginia Tech Alcohol Abuse Prevention website, every 40 minutes, 0.01 percent of alcohol leaves your system. The limit for people under 21 is 0.02. But any alcohol consumption will get you charged if you're underage. These charts show—in general—how many drinks it takes to become too impaired to drive. They're not exact, and they don…
Monday, November 14, 2011
The sheriff's office will be targeting impaired drivers and those driving without a seat belt.
The McHenry County Sheriff's Office will be conducting a special traffic enforcement period starting today and running through Nov. 27. The enforcement period will focus on making sure drivers are wearing their seat belts and not driving under the influence, according to a sheriff's department press release. Over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2010, 700 were injured and 15 died in crashes accross the state—nine of those fatalities involved a drunken driver, according to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office is asking for the public's help in reporting impaired drivers to their local police department or the sheriff's office. The enforcement period was made possible through a Traffic Safety Grant awarded to the McHenry County Sheriff's…
Tricia
2:45 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
Nothing seems to be happening to the 0.08+ drivers now. How many times do you hear of drivers being caught with multiple DUIs? We need to start enforcing the laws we currently have and doing something about the law breakers instead of creating laws that will make more people criminals that we will do nothing about. (This doesn't just pertain to DUIs either.) more ›