Drunk Driver Injury Accident Lawyer: Drunk Driving Crackdown
Alcohol-related crashes account for one-third of all Minnesota traffic deaths annually. Minnesotans want change. They want drunk drivers off the roads. Some legislative changes have been made this year in an attempt to crackdown on drunk drivers.
In May, Governor Tim Pawlenty signed legislation to strengthen sanctions against DWI offenders. It would require certain offenders to use ignition interlock devices. The legislation makes it possible for DWI offenders to regain driving privileges by ensuring safe and legal driving through the use of interlocks. Forty-six states have implemented interlock requirements for DWI offenders and research shows that the use of interlocks may reduce repeat DWI offenses by 45 percent to 90 percent.
Once installed in a vehicle, interlock devices require a driver to provide a breath sample in order for the vehicle to start. If the breath test shows an alcohol-concentration level of 0.02 or above the vehicle will not start. The system does have a safe guard in place to deter others from starting the vehicle for the intended user. Highlights of the legislation include:
DWI offenders with a 0.16 and above alcohol-concentration level will be required to have ignition interlock devices installed on any vehicle they drive.
DWI offenders with a 0.16 and above alcohol-concentration level that choose not to use ignition interlocks will not have driving privileges ranging from one year to six years — depending on offense level. Offenders with three or more DWIs in a 10-year period will be required to use interlocks.
Interlock users will regain full driving privileges immediately after the offense, ensuring they are driving with a valid license and not a threat on the roadway.
Interlocks will be used to monitor chronic DWI offenders (three or more DWIs in 10 year period) to verify chemical use.
Drunk Driving Crackdown: Toward Zero Deaths Campaign
In Minnesota, one in seven drivers has a DWI on their driving record. Every year more than 30,000 motorists are arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) is a Minnesota partnership led by the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health. The Minnesota State Patrol, the Federal Highway Administration, Minnesota county engineers and the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota are also cooperating in this campaign.
Their mission is to create a culture for which traffic fatalities and serious injuries are no longer acceptable. They hope to accomplish this through education, engineering, enforcement (stepped-up DWI enforcement campaigns are key), and emergency medical and trauma services.
Drunk Driver Injury Accident Lawyer
The legislation and TZD campaign sound great on paper, but the issue is and always has been that the penalties have to be harsh enough to be a true deterrent — and they have to be administered. There are too many excuses made, loopholes jumped through and leniency granted gratuitously.
Contact an attorney with PritzkerOlsen, P.A. if you been in a drunk driver injury accident. We have recovered millions for victims of drunk drivers, including a $6,000,000 verdict for a passenger whose right leg was traumatically amputated when the motorcycle on which she was a passenger was struck by a drunk driver. Call 612-338-0202 or 1-888-377-8900.
E. coli Legislation Meets With Resistance From Meat Industry
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced legislation last week that would impose regulations on six strains of E. coli, a potentially life-threatening bacterium that is can spread by being foodborne or waterborne. Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) only regulates the most widely recognized strain of the E. coli pathogen, which is E. coli O157:H7.
Injured by Distracted Drivers: Preventing Further Tragedies
By Fred Pritzker
In 2008, approximately 6,000 people died and 500,000 were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers, according Consumer Reports. By any standard, this is a shocking and needless tide of human carnage. Simply put, cell phone use, texting, and tweeting are incompatible with driving a motor vehicle.
Fred Pritzker on Food Poisoning Policy and Litigation
Pritzker Olsen founder Fred Pritzker discusses foodborne illness policy, food poisoning litigation and food safety with Colleen Needles on Comcast Newsmakers.
Pritzker Olsen Clients Fight for Food Safety
The families of two Salmonella victims that Pritzker Olsen attorneys represented are now pursuing food safety causes on a national scale by urging U.S. Senate members to pass Senate Bill 510, the “FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.” Nellie Napier of Ohio and Shirley Almer of Minnesota both died in a peanut butter Salmonella outbreak last year that sickened more than 700 people and killed nine.
