Drunk Driving

A 49-year-old Quartz Hill man with six drunk driving convictions under his belt was found guilty of murder Monday for drunkenly plowing his pickup truck into a compact car in Lancaster last October, killing an elementary school teacher. Joel Charles Kyne's alcohol level was .35%, more than four times the legal limit, when he killed 27-year-old Erica Nemback, the daughter of a California Highway Patrol sergeant. He faces a sentence of 15 years to life.

With the approaching spate of spring activities and celebrations marking the end of the school year, the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division and the California Highway Patrol will dispatch officers to speak at more than 20 Valley high schools beginning Tuesday as part of the Sober Graduation program. Officers' presentations are an attempt to reduce the number of accidents among young adults caused by drinking and driving, said organizers of the program that began in 1985.

There was a bloody car crash and body bags, police and paramedics and tears for wasted lives and dreams. The scene, although a dramatization, seemed real enough for students at Kennedy High School on Tuesday as they participated in a statewide program aimed at showing--in elaborate detail--the dangers of drinking and driving. "The program is very intense," La Palma Police Officer John Dehaan said.

Supporters of tougher anti-drinking laws lost an effort to get a House vote on a proposal to penalize states that don't set a 0.08% blood alcohol content for drunken driving. The House Rules Committee decided that a measure to set 0.08% as the nationwide standard for drunken driving will not be part of a highway spending bill. The amendment by Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) would have penalized states that don't enact 0.08% laws by denying them up to 10% of their share of federal highway funds.

Councilman James D. Petrikin responded this week to a recall petition against him, saying medical problems--not negligence--forced him to miss about a dozen meetings since his 1997 reelection. In the official response released this week by the city clerk's office, Petrikin disputed allegations that he is inaccessible and fails to return phone calls. "I have not abandoned my duties as councilman," he said.

The prisoners march in lock-step, sporting identical crew cuts and crisply pressed gray uniforms. When a guard calls out, they bow in unison, their backs bent at precisely the same angle. The inmates may eat as much as they wish, but they are not permitted to speak during meals. They all have the same prison-issued calendar hanging next to their bunks. Those who break the myriad rules are put in a room alone to meditate and reflect on their failures.

Arnelle Simpson, O.J. Simpson's oldest daughter, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving early Friday morning after she ran over a bus bench and a flower garden and then partially into an apartment building, police said. Simpson, 29, was hospitalized with minor injuries at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Her car struck the apartment building at Rexford Drive and Olympic Boulevard about 1:48 a.m., said Lt. Al Munoz-Flores of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Two drivers suspected of being under the influence of alcohol collided in an unusual weekend traffic accident in Orange. A suspected drunk driver veered her car into an oncoming lane, striking a sport-utility vehicle whose driver also is suspected of being drunk, police said. The accident happened early Saturday morning on Katella Avenue in Orange, said Sgt. Kevin Roberts. Roberts said the woman was driving west on Katella at California Street about 1:37 a.m.

She spent the morning hanging wallpaper in her new Chino Hills home. That afternoon, Riedel Post lay in critical condition after being hit by a drunk driver who had passed out behind the wheel.