Monthly Archives: January 2012

Designate a Driver Super Bowl Weekend

Police in El Cerrito, California are urging football fans to designate a driver during Super Bowl weekend. The Bay Area city is likely to be filled with football fans cheering their team on, contributing to increased incidents of drunken driving. “While I encourage everyone to have fun…I implore you to do so in a safe and responsible way,” Ell Cerrito traffic Sergeant Shawn Maples said in a police news release. “If you are preparing to consume alcohol…we suggest you do it sensibly, by handing over your keys to a designated driver,” he said. The same advice could apply to anyone around the country who is planning on celebrating while watching the game. “In 2010, over 10,000 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher,” the police statement said. The police will…
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Suits Settled Against Drunk Driver

A combined lawsuit against Andrew Schlichtemeier, the drunk driver who killed four Omaha-area motorcyclists in August 2010, has essentially been settled. Schlichtemeier offered the families of the motorcyclists the proceeds from the car insurance policies he carried at the time of the crash, and they accepted. On August 9, 2010, the four riders were returning home from Sturgis, South Dakota, traveling southbound on Interstate 29 near Sioux, Iowa. Schlichtemeier, traveling north in a pickup truck, crossed the center line in a construction zone, striking and killing the motorcyclists. When authorities tested his blood, they found Schlichtemeier had a blood-alcohol content of .373 percent, more than four and a half times the legal limit. The test also indicated traces of THC. Investigators found two baggies of marijuana, eight 12-ounce cans of Bud Light, all unopened, along with an empty 40-ounce Bud Light bottle in the wreckage of his vehicle. The families…
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Nevada Reducing Road Fatalities With Safety Initiatives

Nevada’s traffic fatalities dropped last year to 243, a decrease that the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) attributes at least in part to the launch of Zero Fatalities, a statewide initiative to reduce highway deaths by employing new safety strategies. After a peak of 432 fatalities in 2006, the number of deaths decreased each year through 2009 with 243 fatalities. The next year, 2010, saw a slight rise to 257, then the number went back down to 243 for 2011. The Zero Fatalities program, to which NDOT is crediting part of the reduction, includes a variety of strategies. Road safety audits, tougher legislation to reduce distracted driving, the addition of 3,000 miles of center-line rumble strips and the installation of flashing yellow-arrow turn signals at some lights are all part of the Zero Fatalities program. Nevada has gotten the jump on the National Highway Safety Association’s proposed ban on cell…
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