Drunk-Driving Programs Paying Off : * Encouraging Signs in South County Include the Declining Number of Trauma Cases

It takes time to see what, if any, result is being obtained by a community’s effort to educate youngsters about the hazards of drinking and driving. A beneficial mix of programs and stiffer drunk-driving legislation now appears to be producing results in South County. That’s a hopeful sign indeed at the start of a new calendar year.

Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo has been compiling grim statistics in recent years for the nearly half a million people it serves in South County. Since 1989, when some of the programs were initiated, there has been a significant decline in trauma cases, particularly those involving drivers 25 years and under. Specifically, Mission Hospital records of drunk-driving accidents show a decline over several years: in 1989, the trauma center handled 19 cases; in 1990, it handled 11; and last year, only seven Orange County drivers 18 and under were sent to the trauma center. That is seven too many, but the downward trend is noteworthy.

The California Highway Patrol says that the decline appears to be related to increased awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. A lower blood/alcohol level, which now considers a driver legally intoxicated at 0.08, has helped. Credit is given by law enforcement officials, court officials and school administrators to South County’s special efforts to introduce over the last five years public education programs that have been aimed at younger drivers.

These include programs like Safe Rides, which offers a taxi service from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays during the school year for students who are out late and too drunk to drive home. Peer pressure has helped.

For those who do not get the message, the South Orange County Municipal Court has been administering a Youthful Drunk Drivers Visitation Program, which handles teen-agers who are arrested for driving under the influence. It aims to reach first offenders between the ages of 18 and 25, by requiring them to spend five hours in Mission Hospital’s trauma center and five more hours volunteering at Western Neuro Care Center in Tustin, an acute care facility for patients badly injured, often in drunk-driving accidents.

The best news is results: Of 800 people who have participated, fewer than five have been arrested again for drunk driving, according to authorities. This success record has drawn the attention of distant Massachusetts, looking for a model.

Keep up the good work.