Drunk Driving

A 69-year-old Reseda man was being held on suspicion of murder Thursday after allegedly killing a motorist in a drunk-driving collision, Los Angeles police said. Charles H. Bengson was driving south on De Soto Avenue about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday when his car crossed into the northbound lanes and struck a car driven by Carlos Robert Mata, 24, of Canoga Park, said LAPD Det. James Deaton.

Irvine police officers routinely coerce drunk-driving suspects into taking a blood test to measure alcohol content and disregard their right to take a urine or breath test instead, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the city and police officials.

A convicted drunk driver who killed a Newport Beach woman in 1988 and is now facing another drunk driving charge will remain in jail after his lawyer withdrew a request to reduce his bail. Danny David Ornelas, 26, was arrested Monday on suspicion of drunk driving while drag-racing through a 30-mph residential street. Police said an open case of beer was found in his car.

Alcohol was the deadly link Thursday night between two strangers--a 16-year-old high school student and a 74-year-old retired construction worker. The Alemany High School student, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, had allegedly been drinking with his friends before getting behind the wheel of his blue Chevrolet pickup truck and heading north on Balboa Boulevard, just a few miles from his home, police said Friday. Meanwhile, Bill C.

After towering over Southern California for three rain-chilled days, the so-called "Pineapple Express" storm is expected to wash out today, but its last gasps created knots of traffic and other hassles across the region Wednesday. Fed by the rainstorm out of Hawaii, scattered floods spilled over roadways in commercial and residential areas, but environmental risks posed by overflowing storm drains were expected to be minimal, Los Angeles County health officials said.

A Los Angeles school bus driver was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after getting entangled in a multi-vehicle crash on the Hollywood Freeway that injured eight and stalled traffic in the Cahuenga Pass for hours. The bus driver, Jose Guadalupe Renteria, was carrying students to El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills when his bus hit a pickup truck and then was rear-ended by an MTA commuter bus in the chain-reaction accident.

A Los Angeles school bus driver was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after getting entangled in a seven-vehicle crash on the Hollywood Freeway that injured eight and stalled traffic in the Cahuenga Pass for hours. The bus driver, Jose Guadalupe Renteria, was carrying about 20 students to El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills when his bus hit two vehicles and then was rear-ended by an MTA bus in the chain-reaction accident in North Hollywood.

Jargon. It's the stuff that separates the animals from the first-timers, the knockoff artists from the hogwagons. Over the years, outside forces have attempted to ban the paper hangers and the SACs and other jargonese, but private-speak has survived and thrived. Last week jargon was attacked once more when Eugene Hickok, the Pennsylvania education secretary said enough already!

A 30-year-old woman was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for the 1994 hit-and-run killing of a Seal Beach child waiting to cross the street. Cynthia Kaye Lietz, a former Seal Beach resident, originally faced various felony charges, including vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of methamphetamine, in the death of 12-year-old Christopher Schneider, Seal Beach Police Det. Bob Mullins said.

Danny David Ornelas appeared in court Tuesday to face new drunk driving charges and was greeted by family members of the Newport Beach woman he ran down and killed in a 1988 drunken binge. He also was scolded by a judge who hiked his bail to $25,000 for the misdemeanor charge. "I cannot conceive of anybody in their right mind who, having slaughtered another person while under the influence of alcohol, is out there doing it again and reckless driving," Municipal Judge Margaret R.