Less Is More: Female DUI Drivers

The ladies are certainly stealing the spotlight from the men, and this time, it’s not a good thing.

Lately, more and more women and even some notable female celebrities in particular have gotten arrested for driving under the influence.

The most recent female celebrity arrested is 36-year-old Alexandra Kerry, the daughter of a former presidential nominee and United States Senator John Kerry.

Alexandra Kerry, a graduate of the American Film Institute and an award-winning writer-director was pulled over in Los Angeles when she was driving erratically around 12:40 a.m. It was reported that she was placed under arrest after she failed a field sobriety test and was booked in the Hollywood Division station.

She later made bail of $5,000 around 5:30 a.m.

The police, who pulled Kerry over claimed to have detected signs and symptoms of being under the influence of alcohol. Although her blood alcohol level has not been confirmed, according to Richard French, a spokesman for the LAPD, there are people could be under the legal limit and still be impaired. The blood alcohol level is not as important as to how impaired her driving was.

Women have a greater tendency to be easily impaired by alcohol than men. The Hills’ starlet, Stephanie Pratt who was also recently arrested for DUI in Hollywood, is proof that even one drink of alcohol can result to a BAC of .08 and .09 percent.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the effects of alcoholic drinks vary greatly especially between men and women because the rate of absorption and other factors such as weight, amount of fat tissue, and stomach contents.

Thus, often even if they consume the same amount of alcohol, women can get impaired faster. Women, who are now as independent as men, are also catching up with the men in terms of the number of driving under the influence arrests.

For women who drink and drive, even two glasses of beer can mean more trouble. Even if they have less drinks than men, they are more get pulled over for impaired driving, much like Alexandra Kerry, the Senator’s daughter.

Under the law in California, the police can arrest a person on suspicion of drunken driving if officers believe the motorist is impaired.

Pregnant Driver Suspected of DUI Injured by Drunk Driver

This is pretty outrageous news.

In Montebello, a suspected drunk female driver who also happens to be pregnant was involved in a major car crash with another driver who also happens to be drunk.

According to the police, four people were injured in the vehicle collision which occurred at Whittier Boulevard and Concourse Avenue. One person was also reported to have been ejected from the vehicle because of the crash.

The drunk pregnant lady driver and the intoxicated male driver both incurred serious injuries. The man’s arms may be amputated because he suffered major trauma.

The police have said that the crash was triggered by the loss of control by one of the speeding vehicles. Lester Enrique Chupina of Whittier was booked for felony drunken driving and is being held at Montebello Jail for $100,000 bail.

The statistics of women driving under the influence are fast approaching the DUI figures which are usually dominated by men.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in its 2008 study revealed that 1,650 people died in the United States because of an alcohol-impaired female driver.

Further, the NHTSA reported that women arrested for DUI, 35 percent had one or more passengers in the vehicle at the time of the crash. While most of the passengers are male, a substantial percentage of them are child passengers.

The increasing trend of female drunk drivers is indeed a cause for concern. Kids in particular are vulnerable because mothers are often tasked to pick up their children from school and if she’s drunk, a tragic accident will almost surely happen.

Usually, law enforcement officers are more lenient towards female drivers, likewise, most DUI campaigns also target men.

Female drivers should fall under the same degree of scrutiny of male drivers. Drunk driving is a vast and encompassing social problem that affects everyone, whether they are man, woman or a teenager.

House Destroyed by Fallen Crane

Not all injuries are limited to physical harm because property damage may also be involved in the issue. People can greatly suffer if their home or any kind of property is suddenly destroyed due to an outside force.

A home in Santa Rosa was recently destroyed after a large crane toppled backward and fell onto it.

According to authorities, the incident happened while the crane was removing an oak tree at Molly Court and Nightingale Drive. The impact caused the house to be divided in half.

The tree’s weight was more than the crane could carry so it toppled backward and smashed into the house. Its cab portion is still in the air.

The crane was about 90 feet tall and it also has a 25-foot-extension. Authorities are expecting that removing it will take one whole day.

No one was injured in the incident.

Projects like tree removals should be properly planned to avoid disastrous accidents. If the people involved in the project have only known that the tree’s weight is too much for the crane to carry, they may have done necessary actions to correct the situation.

Apple and AT&T Sued over MMS Services

A New York man is suing Cupertino IPhone, IPod, Apple and AT&T for allegedly misleading IPhone buyers.

According to the proposed class action business lawsuit that was filed in federal court in New York, the companies promised buyers multimedia messaging service, or MMS, functionality for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.

However, according to the complaint, it seems that the buyers will only get what they bargained for in terms of MMS once AT&T upgrades their network

Apple declined to comment while AT&T contends that the carrier actually does offer MMS on its network.

The class action lawsuit would try to gather other consumers that feel they have been misled by Apple and AT&T.

If proven, the members of the class action lawsuit will get a part of the settlement or damages that will be gained from the lawsuit.

Although it is quite a long shot, consumers who feel the same way could join the lawsuit even if they are not sure yet.

There is a statute of limitation that indicates up to when you can file a civil lawsuit against the manufacturers of the product. Once that time lapses, you would have lost a chance.

If you join the lawsuit against apple now and it turned out that the claim is true, then you will have a share of the damages that will be given by the courts.

If you don’t, you may end up outside looking in and wishing that you took the initiative to get the truth.

If the case lost, you would really have lost nothing as attorney fees for these kinds of cases are usually in a no win no fee basis.

SF Police Identifies Hit-And-Run Accident Victim

San Francisco Police has released the identity of the hit-and-run accident victim in the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and Congdon Street.

The victim was identified as Isaac Hudson, 84, of San Francisco.

The 2-car intersection collision occurred just after midnight and witnesses said that 3 men from the 2nd car ran away from the scene.

Hudson, on the other hand, died on his car.

All drivers are required to stop after being involved in an accident. Drivers are also required to provide reasonable assistance to people who are injured on the scene.

If the three people did not run, they could have helped Hudson and who knows, his death could have been averted.

Running away from the scene only aggravates their offense and they will be prosecuted for it.

For the family, if there is no way to identify the driver or owner of the car, they can make a claim under the uninsured motorist coverage of Hudson’s car accident insurance policy.

However, since the suspects may have left the scene by car, the police will have an easier way to identify the car’s owner, which makes the uninsured motorist coverage not applicable (unless the owner really does not have insurance).

Once the police identities the owner, the family can file a wrongful death lawsuit against him to recover damages they sustained for Hudson’s untimely demise.