The Grand Canyon State has been slowly, surely, steadily toughening its drunken driving laws over time. Year after year and law after law, the desired goal has finally been attained: Arizona is now the state with the toughest DUI laws in the nation.
It’s almost like magic, its proponents claim. You simply drive up to a DUI checkpoint, holding a flier from FairDUI.org to your window, along with your driver’s license, and police wave you through and on your way. That’s the claim in videos and elsewhere online, according to a recent news story.
“I think people are getting the message,” a spokesperson with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said recently. The message: if you are arrested for DUI in Arizona, you face harsh penalties.
Yes, people are undoubtedly getting that message. And yet mistakes still happen and lapses in judgment still occur.
Cinco de Mayo was celebrated a few days ago here in Phoenix, across the nation and south of the border. It’s a holiday commemorating El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (The Day of the Battle of Puebla). As some readers undoubtedly know, that’s the 1862 battle in which the Mexican army routed French forces.
We read recently of a 25-year-old woman who finds herself today in deep legal trouble. She was arrested in Mesa on a recent afternoon after she reportedly hit a stopped car with her vehicle. A man inside the stopped vehicle then jumped onto the woman’s hood as she reportedly tried to drive off.
