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St. Patrick’s Day is falling on the weekend this year, and that means a lot of partying and a lot of drinking. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most busy times for police patrolling for drunk or impaired drivers. In fact, they’re already preparing in many parts of the state and rest of the country.

For example, police in Long Beach are already preparing to increase patrols from 8pm to early dawn the next morning on St. Patrick’s Day. Not only are they planning on conducting these saturation patrols and checkpoints, Long Beach Police are not hesitating to advertise their St. Patrick’s Day efforts well ahead of time. It’s been shown that the number of drunk driving involved crashes decreases by an average of about 20% when regularly conducted enforcement operations are publicly announced. This makes checkpoints and saturation patrols among the best tried and true law enforcement strategies to combat drunk and impaired driving.

Over in Washington state, a new bill was just recently passed – House Bill 2443 – which is hoped to deter impaired DUI offenders. Part of the bill allows the installation of cameras on ignition-interlock devices to keep offenders from trying to bypass the system by getting someone else to start the car. Ignition-interlock devices are installed in vehicles of previously convicted DUI offenders which require an instant clean breathalyzer test in order to start the ignition. In addition, the bill authorizes police officers to administer breath or blood tests without the suspect’s consent. It also expands the state DUI laws to include huffing – inhaling vapors to get high – as one of the substances which can impair driving, as well as the authority to test for the use of such substances. And the bill was passed just in time; mere weeks before St. Patrick’s Day.

The city of San Jose has been hit with some recent DUI stories in the news lately, some of which are definitely going to drop a few jaws.

In a recent news development, a young man by the name of Donovan Barclay with a long history of DUI offenses was arrested yet again after police officers smelled marijuana smoke coming out from the windows of his truck. Upon investigation, officers say they found marijuana and a cannabis cookie in his possession. If it wasn’t bad enough, Barclay was actually violating his bail release terms. Just last November he was caught with a DUI after crashing into a tree.

There’s also the tragic case of an ex-San Jose State University student who hit a female college student with his car and killed her while he was driving under the influence last year. Just this month he finally received his sentence – six years in prison.

This time of year is going to be particularly active for San Jose DUI attorney law practitioners as Spring Break is just down the road, but there are always students who drive under the influence throughout the year. However, it’s not just students who are caught driving under the influence, but sometimes educators as well, as in the case of one San Jose high school principal.

Just two months ago, a San Jose Christian high school principal was caught driving under the influence near Highway 101 and charged with a misdemeanor. He was with his wife at the time and although he was not involved in any accident, he did show some signs of reckless driving which tipped a Morgan Hill police officer to pull him over. He was formally charged last month and is now on a paid leave of absence pending the court case.