A Lull in the War on Drunk Driving

After years of progress against drunk driving, declines in alcohol-related fatalities have slowed, contributions to Mothers Against Drunk Driving are down and some of the nation’s outrage over drunk driving appears to be subsiding.

Consider these developments:

* From 1993 to 1995, the number of deaths caused by drunk driving dropped by 27% in Orange County. From 1995 to 1997, the number dropped by 6%.

* 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 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 level of .1%. Only 13 states (including California), have adopted the lower level, .08%, that Congress was considering.

* Donations to MADD, both nationally and locally, are down sharply in recent years and have forced the organization to lay off employees and close offices.

“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.”

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 .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.”

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 .17, two times California’s legal limit. Sixty-two percent of all alcohol-related fatalities involved drivers with blood-alcohol levels about .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 getting behind the wheel after 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.

Last year, a Santa Ana man was arrested on suspicion of his 12th drunk-driving violation. His license had been suspended since 1984 and he was on probation for drunk driving at the time of his arrest, when he was found to have a blood alcohol level of .27%.

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 roughly 200,000 arrests for drunk driving each year in California.

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

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.

“We must personalize the issue,” said Reidel Post, executive director of a MADD chapter in Tustin. “Once someone says, ‘Goodness, that person in a wheelchair could be me,’ or ‘That mother or father crying at the grave site, that could be me,’ only then [will] people change their opinions of how serious a problem this is.”

Noting that Orange County in 1996 saw its first increase in drunk-driving-related fatalities in many years, Post added that some have become complacent. “The attitude by many is that the problem of people driving with alcohol or drugs is a diminishing one. It’s not the new cause any more.”

But the 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 legal blood-alcohol levels, and no conscionable way to defend drinking, in almost any amount, and then driving.

Gail Martinez’s son Jeffrey was struck five years ago by a repeat drunk-driving offender near their home in Westminster right before his 14th birthday. The driver of the car swerved into Jeffrey as he was riding his skateboard near the curb. A day later, his family had to make the decision to take him off life support.

“This is something that should never, ever have happened to anybody’s child,” said Martinez. Jeffrey’s death, she said, affected her marriage, devastated Jeffrey’s young friends who “realized that they weren’t invincible,” and left a void for her younger son, Jonathan. “He was only 7 when Jeffrey died. I look at Jonathan . . . now and he’s a very serious boy. He misses his brother.”

Many other people, Martinez added believe that they are not doing anything wrong when they get behind the wheel after a few drinks.

“People think, ‘I’m going to be drinking and I’m going to be driving home but I’m a responsible person, this is not going to happen to me.’ I used to think that too. I also thought nothing would ever happen to my sons.”

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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.

(chart)

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.

(chart)

ALCOHOL’S EFFECT

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.

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

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.

GETTING BOOKED

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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:

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.

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.

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

Lower Toll

Alcohol-related automobile injuries and fatalities in Orange County dropped to five-year lows in 1997:

Injuries

1997: 1,446

Fatalities

1997: 47

Source: California Highway Patrol; Researched by VALERIE BURGHER / Los Angeles Times