If You Drink, Do Not Drive

“Let’s take a stand. Friends don’t let friends drive drunk!” is the slogan for National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. The Ventura County district attorney’s office joins the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention as a sponsor of this campaign.

Every year, approximately 20,000 Americans die in crashes involving drivers and pedestrians impaired by alcohol and other drugs. Thus, every two years, the number of citizens killed as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is almost equivalent to the number of citizens who died in the Vietnam War and whose names are written on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall.

Maybe if we carved the words I can handle it on the gravestone of every person who died in a highway crash involving alcohol or drug impairment, we would finally learn the lesson. One of the ways alcohol impairs us is to make us feel as if we are doing just fine, often long after everyone around us knows differently.

But research shows that any measurable amount of alcohol in the body increases the crash risk for some drivers and that the risk increases substantially in persons having blood alcohol levels of 0.08% or greater. In response to this growing evidence, California recently adopted an 0.08% illegal per se level. Interestingly, most European nations impose an illegal per se level of 0.05% or less. I believe we will see laws lowering the 0.08% standard within the next few years. California law now makes it a crime for a trucker to drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.04% or higher.

Although drive-by shootings and crimes of violence draw significant public attention, the No. 1 killer of teens and young adults in the United States is alcohol-related highway crashes. This more subtle killer is often overlooked by the public. A young American dies about every three hours in alcohol-related automobile crashes. That is almost nine teens per day.

Parents, educators, community leaders and law enforcement all need to deliver firm, clear messages about compliance with the national 21 minimum drinking age and reinforce for all the message that if you drink, don’t drive.

MICHAEL D. BRADBURY, District Attorney, Ventura County