Drunk Driving Prevention

A Massachusetts man is facing charges of operating his pickup truck under the influence after he left the scene of a crash Monday night. Oxford police said Roland Hurley, 56, of Worcester, was charged with the seventh OUI following Monday night’s hit-and-run crash. According to police, Hurley was driving a Ford F-350 pickup truck that […]

The transportation company that employed Gregory Goodsell, the alleged drunk driver charged in a crash that killed a 13-year-old girl and injured two others, said he ignored co-workers’ warnings to hand over the keys to his work-issued pickup truck before the crash, as reported by masslive.com. Hi-Way Safety Systems, the Rockland-based company, said in a […]

Thousands of people are killed or injured every year by drivers who have not reached the legal standard for being drunk but who have a reduced ability to see, make decisions or operate a vehicle, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday, and it recommended that the states reduce the allowable blood-alcohol concentration by […]

State Treasurer Steven Grossman and the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC), in conjunction with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) national Impaired Driving Crackdown, will focus enforcement efforts at bars throughout the commonwealth during the 2012 holiday season. The operation started the night before Thanksgiving, and will continue through New Year’s Eve. “This […]

A proposal to allow bars and restaurants in Massachusetts to sell discounted drinks is on hold, according to its two backers. Senators James Timilty (D-Walpole) and Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), who sponsored the so-called “Happy Hour” amendment, told the State House News Service they are recommending a conference committee spend the next year evaluating current alcohol […]

WWLP.com reports that Senator Robert Hedlund, a Republican from Hingham, is backing away from his Senate-passed casino amendment that proposes to return Happy Hour to Massachusetts. Instead, he’s suggesting that the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission review its regulations on bars and restaurants and propose revisions. Hedlund said the six-member casino bill conference committee tasked with […]

Police in Foxboro, Mass. arrested a Taunton man who led them on an almost hour-long chase after fleeing the scene of a car crash along Route 495 Northbound last Friday evening. 50-year-old Howard Stockbridge was arrested and charged after rear-ending a Rhode Island man’s car on 495 North in Foxboro and then driving away from […]

Interesting article in the Patriot Ledger about casinos, happy-hour laws, and whether the return of happy hour will have an impact on drunk driving.

District Attorney Michael Morrissey hosted more than 150 educators and police from across Norfolk County at an all-day conference providing strategies to prevent and address underage drinking and other dangerous behavior, according to patch.com “The time to address underage drinking is before it comes into court as an alcohol-fueled assault, or the car crash that […]

To prevent alcohol sales to youths, the Allston-Brighton Substance Abuse Task Force recently hosted a retailer training for local liquor stores at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. Representatives from 11 stores participated in the three-hour session led by Frank Connelly of the Cambridge Prevention Coalition, a community-based substance abuse prevention coalition. Topics covered at the training […]

Reuters reports that ignition devices that stop drivers from starting their vehicles if they are over the alcohol limit help prevent people convicted of driving under the influence from re-offending, according to a new study. Re-arrest rates for alcohol-impaired driving decrease by 67 percent after the ignition interlocks are installed compared to drivers with suspended […]

The Associated Press reports that an alcohol-detection prototype that uses automatic sensors to instantly gauge a driver’s fitness to be on the road has the potential to save thousands of lives, but could be as long as a decade away from everyday use in cars, US federal officials and researchers said. This week US Transportation […]