Sober Look at Drunk Driving

Sometime between the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became dreadfully unfashionable to drink and drive.

About 2,400 Californians had died on the roads in alcohol-related accidents in 1987. Heart-wrenching stories of young lives snuffed out by a deadly mix of whiskey and asphalt were heard on the airwaves, written about in newspapers and discussed at PTA meetings.

It didn’t take long for most of society--prompted by organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving--to decide that the human costs of drinking and driving just weren’t worth one last martini.

And so phrases like “designated driver” entered the vernacular. State legislatures, particularly California’s, passed tough laws that cracked down not only on habitual drunk drivers, but on first-time offenders as well. Even beer companies aired advertisements cautioning patrons to “think” when they drank.

Public Outrage Has Subsided

The campaigning worked. In a social transformation that was astounding in its speed and breadth, drinking and driving became an unquestioned moral no-no. Alcohol-related fatalities in California plunged 60% in 10 years. Los Angeles County saw even steeper declines.

Until recently.

In the past three years, declines in alcohol-related fatalities have slowed. They even inched up in Los Angeles County during 1997--the first increase since 1990. And even more worrisome for MADD activists, the nation’s outrage over drunk driving appears to be subsiding.

Consider these developments:

* Only 24% of respondents in a February Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll said it was “vital” that Congress work on lowering the amount of alcohol that adults could legally drink before driving.

* Under pressure from lobbyists, Congress scrapped a plan to financially penalize states that allow adults to drive with a blood-alcohol concentration level of 0.10%. Only 13 states (including California) have adopted the lower level--0.08%--that Congress was considering.

* Donations to MADD, both nationally and locally, are doing somewhat better in recent years but are still down sharply from their peak in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. “The problem of drunk driving is by no means solved, but there’s a public perception that it is,” said John Sicklick, president of the Los Angeles County chapter of MADD. “We were the media darlings of the ‘80s . . . but our message isn’t getting through as clearly now, and there’s not as much public anger over these tragedies as there should be.”

Protesting Focus on Social Drinkers

Although not even industry groups are saying that drunk driving has become a nonissue, bar and restaurant owners are becoming less bashful about asking for increased tolerance of “social drinkers,” customers who may split a bottle of wine with dinner or down a couple of beers at a local pub.

“We don’t want our patrons going to jail for having drinks at dinner,” said John Doyle, a spokesman for the American Beverage Institute, a trade group that represents restaurants and led the lobbying battle against lowering the national legal blood-alcohol level to 0.08%.

“A 120-pound woman drinking two glasses of wine over two hours goes to jail in California. And she shares the cell with someone four times as drunk. That’s not appropriate.”

Organizations such as the beverage institute believe that MADD has lost its focus and started cracking down too severely on social drinkers who, the institute argues, aren’t responsible for the vast majority of alcohol-related deaths and accidents.

“It’s not as easy to generate public interest by incrementally going after the alcoholics on the roads who cause most of the problems,” Doyle said. “So MADD likes to pursue sweeping policy changes that make a lot of noise.”

Repeat offenders and hard-core drunk drivers are an undisputed problem. According to the Department of Transportation, the average blood-alcohol level among fatally injured drunk drivers is 0.17%, two times California’s legal limit. Sixty-two percent of all alcohol-related fatalities involved drivers with blood-alcohol levels of about 0.14%, again well above California’s legal limit.

These are drivers who are arrested for drunk driving four, five, sometimes even 12 or 13 times and still keep on drinking. These people, the beverage institute says, not social drinkers, are the killers on the freeways.

There are endless stories of scofflaws convicted time and again of drunk driving. The federal government estimates that a third of all DUI convictions are handed out to repeat offenders. And nothing seems to stop them.

Jail time and financial penalties soar for repeat offenders. California drivers who have been pulled over with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08% twice in seven years have their license revoked for a year. Many multiple offenders serve jail time, at least when there is room for them in the overcrowded prison system.

But the fact is that many habitual drunk drivers will drive even after losing their licenses. Even more chilling was a 1997 study that found that some motorists had driven drunk up to 1,000 times before they were stopped and booked.

Despite the declining alcohol-related fatalities and accidents in California and the nation, law enforcement still has its hands full dealing not only with repeat offenders, but the so-called social drinkers as well.

DUI arrests are down from their 1990 peak, but law enforcement agencies and the justice system still struggle with the 90,000 arrests for drunk driving each year in California.

Ask the average California Highway Patrol officer if drunk driving is becoming a problem of the past, and they can’t believe the question.

“Are you kidding?” said Officer Jeff Bosnich.

“We don’t have to look hard to find drunks on the road,” agreed his partner, Officer Richard Pierce. “I don’t know any officer who thinks drunk driving is no longer a serious problem.”

The Highway Patrol, the state’s lead battalion in the fight against drunk driving, is one of the nation’s most aggressive drunk driving enforcement agencies.

Indeed, the entire state is considered a national leader in the effort against drunk driving. MADD recently awarded California an “A” for its efforts to curb drunk driving. The organization applauded California’s action in 1990 to lower its legal blood-alcohol level to 0.08%. It was the fourth state to adopt that standard.

California police agencies regularly use sobriety checkpoints and DUI enforcement teams to make quick arrests and raise public consciousness about drunk driving.

California repeat offenders--at least those who show up for their court dates--are required to use “ignition interlock devices” when they are allowed to drive again.

Also effective has been the widespread use of hand-held devices that let officers in the field gauge a driver’s intoxication level. A state appeals court has ruled that these tests are admissible in court, essentially depriving DUI attorneys of a common defense.

Yet despite these measures and dozens of others, California law enforcement still considers drunk driving a major problem.

“People who aren’t usually criminals can turn into killers if they drive drunk,” Pierce said. “And that can be true even if you’ve had a few beers. You are impaired at 0.08%.”

Activists Stress Human Costs

Declining fatalities and alcohol-related accidents are always cause for celebration. But when the dialogue over drunk driving is reduced to numbers, anti-drunk driving activists warn, the human element is easily forgotten.

“When numbers go down like they have, it’s easier for the public and alcohol industry to say the problem is solved,” said Tina Pasco, executive director of MADD’s Los Angeles chapter. “It’s easy to forget that those statistics represent absolute humanity and the loss of it.”

It’s a loss that these activists never forget. They believe that if somehow the public could understand the pain of losing a loved one to something as preventable as drunk driving, there would be no quibbling over reducing blood-alcohol levels, and no conscionable way to defend drinking, in almost any amount, and then driving.

Eleanor Arambel’s son died nine years ago in Florida when a drunk driver’s car jumped a curb and hit him on the sidewalk. He had been walking home--Arambel’s voice turns ironic at this point--from a neighborhood bar on a Thursday evening after classes at the University of Florida.

‘You Don’t Drink and Drive, Period’

“It wrenched my life apart,” Arambel said.

She and her husband divorced soon afterward. Her son’s “murder,” as she calls it, was too much for the marriage.

“People say now that ‘only’ 17,000 die [nationally] each year,” Arambel said. “Only is such a terrible word when you’re talking about a life.”

Although she hasn’t volunteered for MADD or any other anti-drunk driving organization since moving to Burbank two years ago, Arambel clearly remembers speaking about her loss to first-time drunk driving offenders ordered by the court to listen to her.

“A lot of them came in looking hassled and bored, but I can’t think of more then three or four that didn’t change their attitude completely when I finished with them,” Arambel said.

As for the belief that drunk driving is not the problem it once was, Arambel is adamant that society shouldn’t rest until alcohol-related fatalities are an utter relic.

“Social drinkers might not take as many lives as hard-core drunks, but they do take some. And that’s too many. You don’t drink and drive, period.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How Much Is Too Much?

A 0.08% blood alcohol concentration is the threshold that can turn a night out on the town into an evening in a police drunk tank. How quickly you reach 0.08% depends on several factors, including metabolism, how much food is in your stomach, and weight. A 120-pound woman who drinks two glasses of wine with dinner has probably reached a level of 0.08%, but it would probably take four drinks for a 200-pound man to reach the same level. One drink is considered a four-ounce glass of wine, 10 ounces of beer or a 1.25-ounce shot of 80-proof liquor.

Blood alcohol limits for commercial drivers and those under 21 are even more stringent. A 0.01% level (one drink within one hour would place most people at this point) is illegal for drivers under 21. It’s illegal for commercial drivers to hit the road with a level over 0.04%.

WAITING TO DRIVE

Alcohol leaves the body at the rate of 0.02% an hour. California Highway Patrol officers say many drivers mistakenly think a cup of coffee or an hour’s nap after an evening of cocktails will be enough to sober them up.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles uses the chart at right.

STATISTICS

Drunk driving fatalities and accidents have been declining in California and Los Angeles County. The largest declines came in the early 1990s, when stiff penalties were enacted and activists thrust the issue into the national limelight.

GETTING BOOKED

If, after field sobriety testing, police still suspect drunk driving, the driver is handcuffed, searched for weapons and taken to a police station for booking.

At the police station, suspects are asked to take a blood, urine or breath analysis test. If they refuse, their driver’s license is automatically suspended for a year, whether or not they are subsequently convicted.

After completing paperwork, suspects are held in a cell until they are released on bail or their own recognizance.

TYPICAL FIRST-TIME CONSEQUENCES

1. Costs: According to the California Highway Patrol, a typical first time DUI offense can set a person back between $10,000 and $20,000. Some of the larger costs:

2. Suspension or restriction of driver’s license for four months.

3. Requirement to attend a panel meeting at which victims or relatives of victims relate the effects of drunk driving incidents on their lives.

4. Possible jail term of up to six months, although most first offenders are not incarcerated.

Note: These penalties increase in cases involving accidents, fatalities or multiple DUI convictions.

Alcohol Content

Beverage % alcohol

Beer (lager): 3.2 - 4.0

Ale: 4.5

Malt liquor: 3.2 - 7.0

Table wine: 7.1 - 14.0

Whiskey: 40.0 - 75.0

Vodka: 40.0 - 50.0

Gin: 40.0 - 95.0

Tequila: 45.0 - 50.0

Up to $1,000 in penalties.

$6,000 to $9,000 in increased insurance rates over three years.

$2,500 to $4,000 in legal fees and attorney costs. These can be much higher.

$150 to $500 In towing and impound costs.

Up to several thousand dollars in DMV fines, fees for driver education classes and lost wages for court appearances.

A TYPICAL INCIDENT

1.California Highway Patrol officers look for weaving cars and excessively slow or fast drivers, among other things.

2. After pulling a driver over, if the suspect appears to have been drinking, officers may ask about the driver’s health, medications and whether he or she consumed alcohol. Drivers are not required to answer.

3. A battery of sobriety tests will be requested, from trying to walk a straight line to clapping hands in a certain pattern. A driver is legally entitled to refuse to comply.

4. The final streetside step is a breath analysis. Suspects breathe into an alcohol-screening device for about eight seconds and a digital reading is displayed. Officers take two tests, and if the readings are close to each other, those results are admissible in court. This test is not required, either.

5. If an officer intends to cite a motorist, he will confiscate the driver’s license and will issue a 30-day, temporary one.

ALCOHOL CONTENT

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. When ingested, it is rapidly absorbed into

the blood-stream. Since it’s very soluble in water, alcohol quickly moves into body tissue and fluids that contain water. About 95% of the ingested amount is metabolized in the liver, the rest excreted.

Sources: California Highway Patrol, Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Code