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S.J. Alcohol Related Traffic Deaths Decline 22%

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Erin Sherbert, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

May 23--The number of people killed in alcohol-related accidents in San Joaquin County dropped about 22 percent from 2002 to 2004, while deaths across the state and nation increased slightly, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Agencies in the county have cracked down on drinking and driving, with better enforcement yielding more DUI arrests, said Officer Mike Allen of the CHP office in Tracy.

"We caught them before they had an accident," Allen said, adding that he believes educational programs and DUI campaigns also have helped raise awareness about the consequences of drinking and driving.

Stockton Police Department spokesman Pete Smith said officials are not surprised by the drop in alcohol-related deaths, adding that Stockton has dedicated DUI patrols within the city.

But alcohol continues to play a critical role in fatal car accidents statewide regardless of efforts to curb drinking and driving with enhanced enforcement during holidays, sobriety checkpoints and education programs.

The number of deaths resulting from alcohol-related accidents rose 3.6 percent in California from 2002 to 2004, according to the CHP.

"You could say that people just are not getting the message," said Steve Kohler, a CHP spokesman. "You have a hard-core group of people that are going to drink and drive no matter what we do."

Nationwide, DUI deaths had been declining until last year, when the number of people killed by drunken drivers increased 1 percent, according to preliminary statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Advocacy groups and industry experts say they are not surprised to see more DUI deaths, saying law enforcement agencies do not spend enough money to target drunken drivers, said John Doyle, executive director for the American Beverage Institute, a Washington-based restaurant industry group.

For instance, Doyle said, agencies should spend less money on DUI checkpoints and more money on roving police patrols specifically looking for drunken drivers.

He pointed to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report in August that showed that alcohol-related deaths in 2004 dropped mostly in states that don't use sobriety checkpoints.

Sobriety checkpoints are set up, primarily on major holidays, to catch drunken drivers and to educate the community about the dangers of drinking and driving.

California is one of 39 states that use checkpoints to catch drunken drivers.

"We should not squander resources on (public relations) campaigns on drinking and driving and (instead) target drunks," Doyle said. "We as a nation have shifted our attention away from a true highway traffic safety hazard, and that is the drunk driver."

Contact reporter Erin Sherbert at (209) 833-1143 or esherbert@recordnet.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

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Source: The Record

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