Blood Alcohol

The Glendening administration urged legislators yesterday to approve a bill that would make it easier to convict motorists of driving while intoxicated, contending the measure would save 23 lives and 1,300 injuries in Maryland each year.Backed by elected officials, anti-drunken driving activists, police officers and victims' relatives, the administration called on the General Assembly to lower the blood-alcohol level for a DWI conviction from 0.10 to 0.08."It's not often that we can say with certainty that passing a piece of legislation will save lives," Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said at an Annapolis news conference.

The entire undergraduate student bodies of the Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Naval Academy combined. The population of Bel Air, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The average attendance at a Hershey Bears hockey game (the highest in the AHL). Every one of those descriptions represents roughly 10,000 people. By any way of looking at it, that's quite a large crowd. It's also the same number of people who are killed each year in vehicle crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers in this country.

A House of Delegates committee voted last night to kill legislation aimed at cracking down on motorists who drink, rejecting a bill that would have lowered the blood-alcohol level at which a driver can be considered drunk in Maryland.The 11-10 vote by the House Judiciary Committee apparently dooms the measure for this year. The bill would have lowered the blood-alcohol level required for a conviction of driving while intoxicated from .10 to 0.08.The committee voted against the bill despite hearing testimony from a broad coalition of law enforcement, medical and safety advocates that Maryland could save lives by passing the legislation.

Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. is facing five charges in connection with an August boat crash that sent him and six other people — including four children — to the hospital. Investigators said Dwyer's blood-alcohol level was three times above the legal threshold for being under the influence when his powerboat, The Legislator, collided with another vessel on a Pasadena waterway Aug. 22. Dwyer, 54, was charged Thursday by Maryland Natural Resources Police with operating a vessel while under the influence of alcohol, reckless operation of a vessel, negligent operation of a vessel, failing to register his boat and a rules-of-the-road violation.

Charles County police say a Nanjemoy man had a blood-alcohol content nearly five times the legal limit on May 9 when his speeding car crashed head-on into another car on Md. 6, killing himself and five other people, three of them children.Investigators also said the man, Ernest Lee Knight, 27, had argued with his wife by telephone just minutes before the accident. Then, witnesses said, while he was driving toward home he swerved repeatedly into the path of oncoming traffic.Charles County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Becker, a traffic homicide investigator, said he theorized that Knight may have meant to commit suicide.

CLARIFICATION An article in the Maryland section Wednesday about a fatal Howard County automobile accident failed to make it clear that under Maryland law a motorist with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher is considered to be driving while intoxicated (DWI), and a motorist with a blood alcohol concentration between 0.04 percent and 0.08 percent is considered to be driving under the influence (DUI).

Maryland law enforcement officials are vowing to step up their war against drunken driving this weekend as a tougher new state law goes into effect. The law -- which lowers the blood alcohol level needed to convict someone of the most serious drunken-driving offense from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent -- was passed in the spring by the General Assembly after years of lobbying by highway safety advocates. "I wasn't sure we would see .08 passed in my lifetime," said Brenda Barnes, executive director of the Maryland chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. said Thursday that he had been drinking alcohol when a motorboat he was operating collided with another boat in the Magothy River — an accident that left six people with serious injuries. In a brief news conference outside a Baltimore hospital, the Pasadena Republican said his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.2 percent after Wednesday's crash. The legal limit is .08, according to state law. "I deeply regret my actions and ask for your forgiveness," Dwyer said, adding that no one should operate a car or boat while under the influence of alcohol.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- As the Cleveland Indians resume their baseball lives yesterday after the death of two of their pitchers, investigators learned that their teammates apparently never saw the dock their boat rammed.Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed Monday night when the 18-foot fishing boat Crews was piloting struck and went under a dock on Little Lake Nellie, about 30 miles north of the Indians' spring training camp. Investigators have been trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the accident, such as why the boat hit the dock, how fast the boat was traveling and whether alcohol was involved.

An Annapolis man faces up to five years in prison and a $3,000 fine after pleading guilty yesterday to vehicular homicide while intoxicated in a November 1991 accident that killed a man crossing the street with his dog.Kenneth James Campbell, 36, of the first block of Silopanna Road, pleaded guilty to running down and killing Kevin Hicks, 41, of the 1700 block of Belle Drive, on Nov. 20, 1991. Hicks was pronounced dead shortly after being struck by Campbell's 1976 Ford pickup truck while walking his dog at 8:40 p.m. along Forest Drive, prosecutors said.

Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. said Thursday that he had been drinking alcohol when a motorboat he was operating collided with another boat in the Magothy River — an accident that left six people with serious injuries. In a brief news conference outside a Baltimore hospital, the Pasadena Republican said his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.2 percent after Wednesday's crash. The legal limit is .08, according to state law. "I deeply regret my actions and ask for your forgiveness," Dwyer said, adding that no one should operate a car or boat while under the influence of alcohol.

What happens if Judge W. Kennedy Boone III blows a .07 after lunch? Does he just return to the bench that day, or is the bailiff authorized to send him home with a designated driver? Does Judge Boone get to resume his duties, or does another judge of the Washington County Circuit Court relieve him of his docket? I realize that a .07 blood-alcohol level is not considered intoxication under Maryland law, but it's pretty close. I raise these questions because Judge Boone, who presides in Hagerstown, has been ordered to take a blood-alcohol test twice a day — once before he goes on the bench in the morning, and again after lunch.

Ravens rookie Sergio Kindle's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when he was pulled over early Sunday morning in Howard County, according to court records. The arrest marks another hit to the linebacker's troubled first season, which was derailed when he suffered a skull fracture after falling down steps just before the preseason. Kindle, 23, told The Sun that Sunday's arrest was a "mistake" and apologized to the team. Kindle was stopped by police just after 4 a.m. after an officer observed his vehicle weaving on Route 1 in Savage, police said.

A 29-year-old Howard County man pleaded guilty Monday to charges of vehicular manslaughter after an October incident in which he left the scene of a fatal crash after a bout of heavy drinking. Police showed up at Ray William Wolfrey's Fulton home after they followed a trail of leaking fluid from the Oct. 10 accident, which killed Mary Valenzuela, 53, of Bethesda. "I screwed up," he told investigating police at the time. "I was scared." Authorities said he claimed he hadn't had any beer until after the accident and thought that the crash "didn't look that bad."

The Baltimore police officer under investigation for killing a fellow bar patron Saturday was involved in an off-duty shooting in 2005 in which investigators determined he was driving with a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level before firing his weapon, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun. In that incident, Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba told investigators that he was behind the wheel of his Nissan 350Z in the 5900 block of Pulaski Highway...

A Miami television station and newspaper reported that blood tests show Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth was driving drunk when he fatally struck a pedestrian last weekend. WSVN-TV reported yesterday that unnamed sources with knowledge of the investigation said Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was between .08 and .16. The legal limit is .08. The Miami Herald also reported that an unnamed source said Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit. The Miami Beach Police Department wouldn't confirm the reports to the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON -- Candy Lightner, who gained fame a decade ago as the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is now fighting MADD-backed legislation to tighten drunken driving standards as a lobbyist for a restaurant industry group opposed to stricter alcohol laws.Mrs. Lightner, whose 13-year old daughter, Cari, was struck and killed by a drunken driver in Sacramento, Calif., in 1980, began working as a lobbyist for the American Beverage Institute several weeks ago.The institute, which represents T.G.I.

Trying to stay marriedResearchers have determined that the kind of therapy troubled couples choose may mean the difference between saving the marriage and saying goodbye. Researchers at Texas A&M University randomly assigned 55 couples with marital problems to one of two kinds of marriage counseling. Twenty-six of the couples took behavioral therapy, which concentrates on helping couples develop skills in communication and problem-solving. A conflict over sharing responsibility for parenting, for instance, might be resolved by negotiating a contract spelling out each partner's duties.