Raleigh, NC — A North Carolina State University student had apparently been celebrating his 21st birthday, investigators said, when he struck a bicyclist near campus late Wednesday morning.

According to a Raleigh police report, Brian Anthony Reid, 21, of Graham, admitted he had been drinking. He registered a .12 blood-alcohol concentration on an alcohol breath test.

Reid was charged with one count each of driving while impaired, felony assault by motor vehicle and failure to reduce speed.

The crash happened shortly before 11:00 am, police said, when the Ford F-150 Reid was driving struck Nancy Antoine Leidy near N.C. State at Nazareth Street and Crusader Drive.

Leidy, 60, was taken to WakeMed in Raleigh with life-threatening injuries. She was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, but died Wednesday night.

She was riding on the right-hand side of the road and was wearing a helmet, police said.

Reid, a junior engineering major at N.C. State, was in the Wake County Jail Wednesday afternoon under a $10,000 secured bond on the assault charge and a written promise to appear in court on the DWI.

His first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

At the Wake County magistrate’s office Wednesday afternoon, Reid’s father called the crash “an unfortunate accident” and said “our prayers are with the family.”

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Lawmakers want to require repeat DUI offenders to prove they can drive before turning on the car.Now, lawmakers want interlock devices instead of just as an option. The device costs about $60 a month and requires a driver to blow into a Breathalyzer.

“This is something that courts can do now, but aren’t, for one reason or another. I’m not sure why they aren’t ordering a lot of these,” said representative Neil St. Onge, Ballwin (R).

He said that for every 100 drivers out on the road, three of those drivers have had multiple DWI convictions. In Missouri, there are 118,000 people with multiple drunk driving convictions. More than 40,000 have three, and 7,300 have five or more.

“If you look at it another way, by having one of these on your car, it allows a person to get back to driving safely without drinking, and it allows them to continue to be a useful member in society,” said St. Onge.

Some believe this effort to keep the roads safer is simply not worth the cost.

“Well, I think that the trend around the country has been to push this expensive hardware,” said representative John Burnett, Kansas City (D). ”I don’t think that hardware is an answer to alcohol treatment for people that have alcohol problems. I dont think that you can make them blow in machines and stop drinking.”

Representative St. Onge hopes to push this bill through both chambers before the end of the session on May 16.

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Law enforcement work daily to combat crimes that involve alcohol, drunken driving and underage drinking. Now there’s a new pill on the market that could throw off police officers and possibly hide an alcohol-related crime.

Anti-Poleez claims to be a mint that erases all traces of smells on your breath associated with alcohol and cigarettes.

Columbus police said that those who think they can drink and drive and fool police with the product are wrong. Police aren’t going to base a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated on breath alone. They will pull drivers over for other actions like swerving and speeding.

The Ohio Department of Public Safety Investigative Unit worries that the product could hide kids’ illegal practices from their parents.

NBC 4 contacted the maker of Anti-Poleez. They said the name of the mint is meant to be controversial in order to create sales in the breath mint market — but in no way is it meant to condone illegal activity.

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DENVER (AP) — Police say the Denver Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony was arrested early Monday on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Detective Sharon Hahn says Anthony was arrested at about 4 a.m. on Interstate 25. Hahn says an officer pulled him over for weaving and failing to dim his lights.

Hahn says Anthony failed a series of sobriety tests. He was ticketed and released at the scene, but Hahn says she does not know how he got home.

He is due back in court on May 14.

The Nuggets issued a statement saying they are aware of “the situation involving Carmelo Anthony” but declined further comment.

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An off-duty Fort Worth police officer was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated after a Burleson officer found him asleep behind the wheel of his marked patrol unit at a Burleson intersection Sunday.

Clinton Wyatt, who began with the department in January 2003, was released from the Burleson Jail on Sunday after posting $1,000 bail, said Sally Ellertson, a spokeswoman with the city of Burleson.

Wyatt, a patrol officer assigned to the crime response team, has been placed on restricted duty and is not allowed to carry a badge or gun, pending the outcome of an internal investigation, said Lt. Paul Henderson, Fort Worth police spokesman.

Wyatt, 32, had been working at the Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday and had gotten off work about 6 p.m., Henderson said.

Burleson police say an officer saw Wyatt asleep in his take-home patrol car in the 100 block of Northwest Burleson Boulevard at Renfro Street about 3:45 a.m. Sunday.

Ellertson said the marked unit was facing southbound about two to three car lengths from a stop light. The case will be forwarded to the Johnson County district attorney’s office for prosecution.

Henderson said an internal affairs investigation is also under way. He said the department is investigating Wyatt’s whereabouts between when he got off work Saturday and his arrest Sunday.

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LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. - Following his arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence Tuesday night, Richie Sambora could also be facing child endangerment charges, Access Hollywood has learned.

A woman and two girls were passengers in the car, said Laguna Beach police Sgt. Jason Kravetz, who declined to release their names. But Celebrity Web site TMZ.com reports that a police source said Sambora’s 10-year-old daughter with ex-wife Heather Locklear, Ava, was in the car with him.

The 48-year-old Bon Jovi guitarist was given field sobriety tests and arrested without incident. He was booked at the Laguna Beach jail and released at 4 a.m., Kravetz said Wednesday.

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Wearing a cast over an injured arm, Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall appeared in court Monday to ask for a continuance in his DUI case.

Police say Marshall was pulled over in downtown Denver shortly after 2 a.m. on October 22, 2007. His arrest came hours after the Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-to-28 in Denver.

Marshall’s case was continued until June 18. Marshall’s legal defense filed a range of motions at Monday’s court appearance, including a challenge to the breathalyzer.

Marshall’s arm was in a cast and sling because he received stitches recently. Marshall says he suffered the injury from a fall into an entertainment center while on vacation in Orlando, Fla. The injury is not expected to keep him out of training camp in July.

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Saint Patrick’s Day turned sour for nearly 500 Colorado drivers. The Colorado State Patrol and 49 other law enforcement agencies arrested 488 people for driving under the influence of alcohol over the long holiday weekend.

Between 6:00 last Friday and 3:00 Tuesday morning, agencies across the state participated in a DUI crackdown.

There were no alcohol-related deaths during the weekend, compared to five such deaths over St Patrick’s weekend in 2007. Last year there were 363 DUI arrests during the same weekend.

People convicted of DUI face serious consequences, including potential jail time, the loss of their driver’s license, and other unanticipated expenses that can total more than $10,000.

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I had to share this funny YouTube video with you all. DUI suspect puts his head through a wall!

This is an interesting case, and yet another example that illustrates the importance of being responsible about alcohol consumption. In 2006, a 23-year-old Chicago man driving under the influence, struck a vehicle while speeding at over 100 mph. Both the couple in the vehicle and the drunk driver were killed. The couple’s young daughters brought a suit against the clubs where the drunk driver had been served earlier in the evening. A jury awarded damages of $2.5 million, but because of dram shop liability laws, the award was limited to $67,000 per person, plus property damage and funeral costs. Full article