Anaheim : Council to See Study on Drivers’ Source of Liquor

More than half the 679 people who had been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Orange County said they had bought their liquor at a gasoline station/mini-mart, according to a report Anaheim city officials will discuss today.

Council members are scheduled to consider an ordinance that would ban the sale of alcoholic beverages at gas station/mini-marts, which, critics say, leads to an increase in drunk-driving incidents.

According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the Orange County Alcoholism Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by the Board of Supervisors, of 679 people attending drunk drivers’ schools, 51% had bought their beer or wine at a gas station/mini-mart, and 43% drank it immediately. The survey was conducted at schools in Santa Ana, Westminster and West Anaheim.

“On one hand, we are saying don’t drink and drive. And then, we let young people go to the gas station to get it,” said Dave Larson, executive director of the National Council on Alcoholism, Orange County chapter. “If we can sell it at gas stations, why don’t we sell it at 31 Flavors (ice cream stores.)”

Anaheim is one of several cities considering banning the six-packs and wine bottles at convenience stores in gasoline stations. The data by the county board may be the first linking mini-mart sales to drunk-driving accidents, since most local and state proponents of such bans have conceded they do not have statistics to back them up.