 |
 |
 |
| |
FREE VIN Check
Looking for a used car? Get a FREE VIN check
Get Unlimited Vehicle History Report
HOT
NEWS
Each vehicle
with a AutoCheck Certified Vehicle History
is backed by AutoCheck
Buyback Protection Guarantee
- Run a Vehicle History Report.
- If the vehicle has a clean title history
it will qualify
for the AutoCheck Buyback Protection Guarantee
… FREE
from AutoCheck.
AutoCheck will actually buy the vehicle back from you
if you find
a severe problem (major accident, fire, flood damage, major odometer
problems or a manufacturer buyback) that was reported by a DMV and
not included in the Vehicle History Report. This protection lasts
for one year and is transferable.
Try Vehicle History Report now! |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| |
Who's Online
There are currently, 54 guest(s) and 0 member(s) that are online.
You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here |
|
|
|
|
|  |
|
|
|
| |
DUI - Drunk Driving: Drunk driving is no longer acceptable to police, public
Posted on Monday, September 27 @ 15:22:00 CDT by Motor_Vehicles |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
An hour ago, he finished his last glass of beer and settled back in a chair to play cards.
When it's time to go home, he feels fine. But is feeling good enough, in the eyes of the law?
“To me, it's real simple — if you're going to drive, don't drink,” said Ontario County Sheriff Phil Povero. Play it safe and avoid driving.
Blood alcohol content is hard to calculate — it is affected by the amount you drink and how fast; your body weight; and whether there's food in your stomach. And stiffer DWI penalties make little math errors a big problem.
Fines range from $500 to $10,000 and jail time could mount up to seven years, upon a third conviction.
Of greater concern, though, should be the thousands of alcohol-related accidents that kill and maim people every year.
Changed perspective
Public attitudes toward drinking and driving have changed drastically in the last 30 years. In the '70s and earlier, police sometimes just put drunk drivers into the squad car and gave them a lift home; it wasn't unusual to hear those who'd had “a little too much” later brag about not getting pulled over. Some even felt it was a sign of alcoholism or weakness to play it safe.
But eventually, it began to sink in how many of their friends, neighbors and loved ones were dying because of drunk drivers.
“In the late '60s and '70s, the carnage on the highways here was nothing less than phenomenal,” said Wayne County Stop-DWI Coordinator Henry Krasucki, a former state trooper. “I can't tell you how many fatals we had, but we had lots.”
“The numbers were staggering,” agreed Povero, noting that the death toll prompted the creation of groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving, both of which launched public education campaigns.
Those campaigns, stricter laws and enforcement, and more strident prosecution all helped to change public and police attitudes and discourage drunk driving.
“Thirty years ago, when I was a trooper, I don't want to say we thought differently about DWI — but we did,” Krasucki said, adding that there were more repeat offenders then.
“I think we can say we have seen a change in the public perspective,” said Povero, noting that designated drivers and collecting keys at parties with alcohol were unheard of before the 1980s.
“It is no longer considered to be terribly cute to be drunk and driving,” agreed Ontario County Stop-DWI Coordinator Drusilla Malavase.
“Too many people have been killed over the years on our highways by drunk drivers,” said Geneva City Police Chief Frank Pane, a member of the Ontario County Stop-DWI Program Advisory Board since its inception 21 years ago. “We find that more and more people are cooperating.”
Pane said the city's anti-DWI efforts have been successful, that the department receives many tips about drivers who may be drunk.
“We haven't had a fatality related to DWI [within city limits] in over 20 years. That's a big thing,” Pane said, adding that there used to be one or two a year when he was a patrolman.
“The public has no tolerance for drunk driving now,” said Ontario County District Attorney R. Michael Tantillo.
Tantillo, who has been district attorney for 15 years and was an assistant district attorney for the previous 10, said that getting a jury to convict someone of DWI used to be much more difficult, with jurors realizing that it could easily be them on trial.
Still deadly
Even now, the state Department of Motor Vehicles Web site notes that one-third of the fatal traffic accidents in New York involve pedestrians and impaired or intoxicated drivers.
The reason is that alcohol impairs judgment, coordination and reaction times, and the risks increase sharply as blood alcohol content increases.
A driver with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent — the drunk driving threshold — is four times as likely to cause an accident as a driver who has not been drinking; a driver with a blood alcohol content of .16 is 25 times as likely, the DMV site states.
Last year in Yates County, one driver blew a .31 blood alcohol content. If that driver were a 150-pound man, that number would have required drinking slightly more than 13 bottles of regular beer in one hour. The Web site of Intoximeters Inc. says most people lose consciousness at that level; coma and death are not unlikely. At .45, fatal respiratory arrest can occur.
But any alcohol can impair judgment, and drivers with a blood alcohol content of .05 to .07 percent may be charged with driving while ability impaired.
Young drinking drivers have the highest risk of all — up to age 20, they are almost three times as likely to be involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes than older drivers. They also face a zero-tolerance law with a minimum six-month license suspension for a blood alcohol content of 0.02 or higher. Commercial drivers with three DWI convictions in five years can even lose their license for life with no chance of reinstatement.
Local efforts
In 2003, 86.5 percent of those charged with DWI in Ontario County were convicted, giving the county the best record for 21 consecutive years. Yates County had the state's second-highest conviction rate, with 79.8 percent; Wayne County was third, with 72.1 percent; and Seneca County was sixth with 67.9 percent.
“This is, without a doubt, the toughest region of the state on drunk driving,” said Tantillo, crediting his county's continued success to excellent police work, a policy against plea bargains that's stricter than the state's, and having three expert prosecutors whose sole focus is DWI.
State law prohibits plea-bargaining to a charge not related to alcohol or drugs, but Tantillo has continued a policy instituted by his predecessor, Ontario County Judge James Harvey, not accepting pleas to the lesser charge of driving while ability impaired.
Seneca County First Assistant District Attorney Bob Mascari also gave his county's officers much of the credit, saying they produce good, solid cases that are hard to defend.
“If the steps are followed correctly, there isn't a lot of wiggle room for defendants,” Mascari said.
Mascari also said helping people identify and overcome problems, rather than only punishing them, is important.
One of the most lauded public education efforts has been the state's Stop-DWI program. Created by state Sen. Bill Smith after his daughter was killed in a DWI-related crash in the 1980s. It requires each county to create an agency to track and report DWI statistics, oversee public education and hold programs like Victim Impact Panels — all funded by local DWI fines.
“This is one of the best things that New York state has ever done.
“It's very far-thinking,” Tantillo said.
“That's done wonders to reduce the highway deaths and personal injury crashes,” agreed Krasucki.
“If we are acting as the deterrent that we are supposed to be, the numbers should go down,” said Malavase. “And that has definitely been the case.”
Malavase said the Victim Impact Panels give offenders a new perspective on the havoc their behavior can wreak in other people's lives. Participation in the program is usually part of a sentence, with panels featuring testimonies by people who have been injured by drunk drivers or lost their loved ones that way.
Malavase said one public misconception still stands — that drunks are less likely to be injured in accidents than sober people.
“That's a myth, that the happy drunk is going to walk away from the crash,” she said, adding that drunks also buckle up less often than sober people.
Over the years, local DWI statistics have fluctuated widely, but they are down overall from 1980.
While many statistics have improved, local officials are disturbed by increases in two areas — DWI arrests among women and incidents that occur with children in the vehicle.
Yates County Sheriff Ron Spike — his county's Stop-DWI coordinator — said the 25 women convicted in 2003 is up from 16 five years ago — a jump of more than 50 percent. He has also seen increases in the number of repeat offenders.
Despite their successes, Malavase and Krasucki doubt that their programs — funded through fines — will ever put them out of business. No matter how much they educate the public, there will always be individuals unwilling to follow the rules.
“When people drink and they choose to drive is when they make a mistake,” Krasucki said. “And it is a choice. It's your choice when you go out and drink whether you're going to get behind the wheel or not.”
By BRIAN P. HEFFRON
Times Staff Writer
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
Login
Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Article Rating
Average Score: 1
Votes: 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
