
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190496
SECTION: NATL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISBURG, PA.                                LENGTH: Short

POLICE GET MORE POWER TO CURB DRUNKEN DRIVING

Inocencio Muniz did not even wait until the police officer had returned to his patrol car before ignoring a warning not to drive until he sobered up.

Muniz's next warning - about his right to remain silent and have an attorney - did not come until after police videotaped him slurring his speech in response to questions about his age, height and weight.

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Monday that police did not violate the Pennsylvania motorist's rights by videotaping his answers to the routine questions, and it ordered a lower court to consider reinstating his drunken-driving conviction.

The decision, along with a Supreme Court ruling in a Michigan case last week that sobriety checkpoints do not violate motorists' rights, have strengthened police powers to curb drunken driving at what some civil libertarians say is too high a price.

"There seems to be the continued pattern of the high court cutting back on the rights we thought we enjoyed," said Stefan Presser, legal director of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union.

But Sherry Walker, executive director of the Pennsylvania chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the benefits of roadblocks and video cameras outweigh any inconvenience.

"The decisions are the will of the majority of Americans who are fed up with the senseless, daily slaughter," Walker said.

In 1988, a total 23,351 people died in drunken-driving accidents.

by CNB