Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The National Transportation Safety Board recommends reducing the limit. Some say it would save lives. Others say it's unreasonable.
One drink could be the standard for drunken driving—at least for some people if the National Transportation Safety Board has its way. On Tuesday, the NTSB recommended states lower the blood-alcohol threshold for driving under the influence from 0.08 percent to 0.05 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. We reached out to readers of our Tri-Cities sites and asked them: Should the DUI limit be lowered to 0.05 percent? Here’s some of the responses we got: Tracy Ryder: “How many less sips is …
Saturday, May 18, 2013
The following information was supplied by the Geneva Police Department. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.
Don't be driving under the influence at any time—and if you are DUI, you can get arrested if you drive through downtown Geneva in the wee hours of the morning. Here are two examples from the Geneva Police Department blotter: DUI—Geneva police arrested Joseph Vernagallo, 34, of Geneva on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding and no valid driver’s license after a traffic stop around 12:49 a.m. May 11 in the 300 block of West State Street, reports said. Vernagallo has a court date of June 12 at the Kane County Judicial Center, 37W777 Route 38, St. Charles. DUI—Geneva police arrested Ashley Kuntz, 27, of Batavia on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, DUI with a blood-alcohol content of .08 or more and …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Jeanette Baum, 32, of Batavia, was sentenced by Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Thursday, May 16
A Batavia woman has been sentenced to prison for being under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car after she drove her child to school late last year. Jeanette Baum, 32, of the 0-99 block of North Lincoln Avenue, Batavia, was sentenced Friday by Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. On Jan. 4, 2013, Baum pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated driving under the influence, a Class 2 felony. At about 8:55 a.m. Nov. 27, 2012, Batavia police, responding to a 911 call, found Baum sitting in the driver’s seat of a white 2002 Mitsubishi Galant. The car was stalled after having crashed into a utility box near North Avenue and North Jefferson Street. Officers detected a strong odor of …
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The following information was supplied by the Geneva and Batavia police departments. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.
Aggravated DUI—Batavia police arrested Beligca Marrero, 27, of Aurora on charges of aggravated driving under the influence, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, improper lane usage, no valid driver’s license, and state citations of DUI and DUI with a blood-alcohol content of more than .08, Batavia police reports said. The arrest took place around 12:21 a.m. April 4 in the 1100 block fo South Batavia Avenue. Marrero was transported to the Kane County Jail. DUI Alcohol—Batavia police arrested Michael J. Joyce, 24, of Batavia for driving under the influence, DUI with a blood-alcohol content of more than .08, disobeying a stop or yield sign, improper lane usage and disobeying a traffic control signal after a traffic stop around 12:52 a.m…
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The following information was supplied by the Kane County State's Attorney's Office. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.
Three drunken driving arrests—one in Geneva and two in St. Charles—were one result of Kane County’s St. Patrick’s weekend No-Refusal operation, officials announced Tuesday, April 2. The no-refusal weekend is a collaboration between the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office and five law-enforcement agencies: Batavia, Elburn, Geneva, South Elgin and St. Charles. Authorities obtained three blood-alcohol concentration samples — all breath samples. Of the three samples obtained, two were more than twice Illinois’ threshold of .08, and one was in excess of three times the .08 threshold. The communities and arrests are as follows: BATAVIA GENEVA ELBURN SOUTH ELGIN ST. CHARLES “Our goal with these No-Refusal initiatives is for drivers to be …
Friday, March 29, 2013
The following information was supplied by the Geneva Police Department. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.
A 52-year-old woman facing an April court decision on a July 31 drunken-driving charge now faces felony DUI charges after a police officer spotted her car swerving over the yellow line. Geneva police arrested Ricki Thomas, 52, of Geneva on charges of driving under the influence while license revoked for a prior DUI charge and driving with a suspended or revoked license after a traffic stop around 11:53 p.m. March 15 in the 600 block of East State Street, reports said. The DUI ticket was upgraded to a felony charge, according to the report. Court records indicate Thomas has been charged with 18 driving offenses going back to 1999, including a July 31, 2012, arrest for DUI in Geneva for which she was released after posting $300 of the $3,000…
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Two St. Charles officers have to push civilians out of the way and leap for safety from a speeding vehicle. The ensuing chase starts in St. Charles and ends on Route 25 and State Street in Geneva.
Two police officers from St. Charles pushed civilians out of harm’s way, then dodged a speeding sport utility vehicle to escape without injury in a harrowing series of incidents Saturday night, St. Charles police report. The St. Charles police officers were checking into a report of a possible domestic disturbance around 9:17 p.m. in a residential driveway, when a swerving Jeep SUV charged at them, narrowly missing the officers’ two parked squad cars but smashing down mailboxes and a speed limit sign before speeding away. After checking to make sure his fellow officer and the civilians were OK, one officer began pursuit, and noted the vehicle was swerving from curb to curb and traveling at speeds of 60 to 70 mph in a 35 mph zone when it …
Saturday, March 9, 2013
No-Refusal Weekend: Kane County State's Attorney Joe Mahon: “I will not say which municipalities will participate. I only will announce when we will have the No-Refusal operation."
Want to know where police will be doing random stops on St. Patrick's Day weekend? You might get a Breathalyzer test, but don't hold your breath waiting for an answer to that one. Kane County law-enforcement agencies will work with the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office on a No-Refusal operation during the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day weekend. “This office has a responsibility to prosecute DUI offenders, and to educate the public not to drive when they drink,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said. “As has been our practice, I will not say which municipalities will participate. I only will announce when we will have the No-Refusal operation. “We believe that in past No-Refusal operations, prior publicity has helped to reduce …
Monday, December 31, 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 getting a drunken driving violation? When police pull drivers over 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. Illinois' legal limit 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. The charts on this page show — in general — how many drinks it takes to become too impaired to drive. They're not exact, and…
Friday, July 13, 2012
Let's follow the European example and make drinking any amount and driving illegal!
Do me a favor. Go to your local Patch website and type “DUI” in the search field. Astonishing isn’t it? But the irony is, because it’s the most often reported story, we don’t pay much attention until someone with a relatively high profile gets nabbed. Somehow, we’ve gotten to the point were the inevitability of drunken driving has become a given. And I’m just as guilty as everyone else. It took the recent Patch news story on the Batavia girls high school softball coach who resigned as a result of a DUI charge to make me seriously start thinking about this persistent problem. It brought back one my frequent conversations with former Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti, who made a very interesting point about our cultural mindset. He …
steve todd
12:40 pm on Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Lowering the limit to .05 is a stupid idea. The current .08 isn't much better. The problem is that even now there is no way for a person to know whether they are over the limit or not. As an avid motorcycle rider, I agree with all of you that texting is the most pervasive new problem, but it is impaired driving that we're all talking about either way. If someone is swerving and driving impaired … more ›