Fatalities Averted but Drunk Drivers Persist

Dennis Zine spent New Year’s Eve with his fingers crossed, hoping the Valley could get through the most popular drinking night of the year without traffic fatalities.

When daylight came, Zine, 37, said he felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley holiday drunk-driving task force, which he heads, had accomplished its goal.

Although 103 motorists were arrested in the Valley on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol--among the highest numbers ever recorded--no one died.

Zine, a police sergeant who has coordinated the drunk-driving program for three years, said he hopes the Valley can overcome its reputation as a “slaughterhouse.” Each year, he said, the Valley leads the city in every traffic category, including arrests and fatalities associated with driving under the influence.

‘It’s an Epidemic’

“We need to change the attitudes of the community,” Zine said. “It’s like an explosion. It’s an epidemic. Something has to be done to bring the numbers down.”

Relaxing at home Tuesday with family and friends, Zine said the task force will be disbanded Sunday. During the holidays it brought together 125 motorcycle officers from throughout the Valley to arrest drunk drivers.

Those officers will return to their normal traffic patrol duties, leaving the responsibility for drunk-driving patrol to Zine, a 17-year police veteran, and the 20 officers who work in his section year-round.

Although he was pleased that no Valley motorists died New Year’s Eve, Zine said the high number of arrests indicates that the public does not take the drunk-driving laws seriously enough. And he placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the judiciary, complaining that plea bargaining too often allows drunk drivers to escape with only fines or short jail terms, rather than lengthy sentences.

“You get an intoxicated driver over and over and over,” Zine said. “Why are they still out there?”

Turned Off Alcohol

Zine said he never has more than two drinks at a party. His job, he said, has turned him off alcohol.

“If you go to a house at 3 a.m. and have to inform someone that a loved one has just been killed in a drunk-driving accident,” he said, “it doesn’t take many of those to influence you.”

Zine said he rarely encounters hostility from the public because of his work. On the contrary, he said, the public supports the department’s efforts to rid the streets of intoxicated motorists.

“I believe we are doing something the community needs,” he said. “As a member of the advisory board of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, I see the grieving survivors. We like to think we help those survivors by hopefully keeping them alive and their friends alive.

“In that way, those who died have not died in vain. They have at least focused attention on the problem.”