Drunk Driving

Actor Shia LaBeouf, who starred as a motorcycle-riding greaser in the latest "Indiana Jones" film, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving early Sunday in Hollywood after he and two other people were hurt in a crash. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said LaBeouf made a left turn and collided with an oncoming car about 2:30 a.m. at the intersection of La Brea and Fountain avenues. The actor's Ford F-150 pickup truck rolled over in the crash.

A Garden Grove man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of killing a female bicyclist while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. According to Orange County prosecutors, Alex Trujillo, 43, having taken prescription drugs and with a blood-alcohol level of 0.13%, swerved his pickup truck off a Seal Beach road Oct. 12 and struck Catherine Busse, who was bicycling on the sidewalk with her son.

Vodka on ice and driving while intoxicated took on new meaning last week when an employee at Kingsville Arena in Canada was arrested and charged with drunk driving while behind the wheel of a Zamboni. Witnesses said the driver, a 34-year-old woman, was driving erratically while resurfacing the arena ice, bumping into the boards and missing large patches of ice, evidently having fallen asleep at the wheel. According to the Windsor Star, the woman had a "mickey of vodka" in her pocket.

Prosecutors charged Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary with gross vehicular manslaughter on Friday, alleging that the author of such hits as "Pulp Fiction" and last year's "Beowulf" was driving drunk when he killed a passenger and injured his wife in a rural Ojai car crash. Avary, 43, pleaded not guilty in a Ventura courthouse to manslaughter and other charges connected to the Jan. 13 single-car collision.

Paris Hilton pleaded not guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor drunken driving charges from her arrest last fall for allegedly weaving around a Hollywood street in her Mercedes-Benz. The 25-year-old hotel heiress was not required to be in Superior Court. Her attorney entered pleas on her behalf to one count each of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or above. The charges carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

A passenger in a car whose driver was allegedly drunk was killed when the car hit several trees on Warner Avenue and Linda Way, authorities said Monday. The passenger, who died at the scene about noon Sunday, was not identified pending notification of relatives. The driver, Jesus Pelayo Pulido of Pomona, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, police said. Pulido allegedly lost control of his car while speeding, police said.

When she learned last summer that her 25-year-old son had been killed at the hands of a drunk driver, Susan Barich's reaction was immediate. "I knew it was an accident," she said. "There was no room for rancor." Barich, 56, a Monterey County businesswoman, has extended extraordinary compassion toward the 22-year-old woman who was drunk at the wheel the night her son, Alex Baer, hopped a ride with her.

Paris Hilton was placed on 36 months probation and ordered to pay fines after pleading no contest Monday to alcohol-related reckless driving, a reduction of an original charge of driving under the influence. Hilton, 25, did not appear in court. The plea was entered by her attorneys. Hilton was arrested Sept. 7 after allegedly being seen weaving on a Hollywood street in her Mercedes-Benz.

Riverside County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a suspected drunk driver late Tuesday as he allegedly accelerated toward them after a brief chase, authorities said. Deputies tried to stop the man about 11:20 p.m. after he drove onto a curb and ran a red light and a stop sign in Home Gardens, an unincorporated community near Corona, according to sheriff's investigator Jerry Franchville.

Despite pleas for mercy from the parents of a college student killed by a drunk driver, a judge Friday sentenced the 22-year-old woman behind the wheel to a prison sentence of nearly five years and four months -- a punishment he described as "fairly tough."