Drunken Pilots Lose Appeals Court Case

MIAMI Two pilots who were drunk in the cockpit have lost an appeals
court bid to overturn their convictions and prison sentences.

The pair were about to fly an American West plane from Miami to
Phoenix back in 2002. But an airport screener smelled alcohol on their
breath, and as the jet was being towed from the gate, police came out and
ordered it brought back.

Testimony at their trial showed the pair spent six hours at a sports
bar, consuming 14 glasses of beer before leaving less than six hours
before takeoff. Tests later showed them still above Florida’s legal limit
for drunken driving.

One of the pilots had been on probation for a highway D-U-I just
months before. He got five years behind bars for operating a jetliner
when drunk. His partner was sentenced to two and a-half years.

Both have been fired by America West.

Source: http://kvoa.com/

Drunk Driving Increases Traffic Fatalities Worldwide

April 12, 2004

A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank
finds that traffic fatalities, including those caused by alcohol, are a
serious world health problem that is often overlooked, the Washington
Post reported April 7.

One in every 50 deaths worldwide is associated with road accidents,
the study found, and traffic crashes are second only to childhood
infections and AIDS as a killer of people between the ages of 5 and
30.

Each year, 1.2 million drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians
are killed in traffic crashes. By 2020, traffic deaths are expected to
increase by 80 percent as hundreds of millions of cars are added to the
roads.

“It is already huge, but if nothing happens it is expected to rise,”
said Etienne Krug, director of WHO’s department of injuries and violence
prevention.

Among the recommendations in the 217-page report are measures for developing
countries, such as India, China, and southeast Asia. They include
stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws, better road designs,
increased use of seatbelts, and improved design and inspection of
vehicles.

This article is published by Join Together – a
national resource for communities working to reduce substance abuse and
gunviolence based at the Boston University School of Public Health

BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS (BJS)

Prison and Jail Inmates, 1995

DID YOU KNOW…
1,127,132 prisoners were under the jurisdiction of correctional
authorities of the 50 States and the District of Columbia (together
holding 1,026,882) and of the Federal Government (100,250).

WERE YOU AWARE…
over the 12 preceding months, the Nation’s prison population grew 72,059
prisoners–an increase of 6.8 percent since year end 1994.

STATISTICS SHOW…
State prison systems were operating between 14 percent and 25 percent
over their reported capacity; the Federal system, 26 percent over the
reported capacity.

FINDINGS INDICATE…
the Nation’s local jails held or supervised an estimated 541,913
persons. Of that total, 34,869 were in community supervision programs
such as electronic monitoring, house detention, and day reporting.

THE FACTS ARE…
an estimated 7,888 juveniles (under age 18) were held in local jails; an
increase of 17 percent from 12 months before. Nearly a quarter were tried
or awaiting trial as adults.

To obtain a copy of BJS’ new release “Prison and Jail Inmates, 1995,”
(NCJ 161132), please refer to “Ordering Directions” at the end of
JUSTINFO or point your Web browser to: <>.

Country	Deaths/100k Vehicles (1998)
S. Korea	80.33
Turkey	76.75
Poland	55.71
Portugal	35.02
France	30.24
Denmark	21.44
USA	19.97
Iceland	16.87
Italy	16.71
Canada	16.65
Germany	15.71
UK	12.73
Sweden	11.81

Source: German Federal Highway Research Institute

DRUNK-DRIVING DEATHS ROSE 4 PERCENT IN 1995

By: Mercury News Wire Services

Highway-safety experts say myriad factors could have contributed to
the first nationwide increase in drunken-driving deaths in a decade,
including public complacency, an increase in the number of young drivers
and higher speed limits. The 1995 toll of 17,274 alcohol-related traffic
deaths was a 4 percent increase over 1994 figures, according to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic deaths also
increased last year, to 41,798 from 40,716 in 1994. Drunken-driving
deaths had been steadily decreasing since 1986.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

According to MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, almost 18,000 people died in alcohol-related accidents in the United States in 2003, up from 2002. The issue of drunk-driving dangers was highlighted in the ’80s and ’90s. MADD began in 1979 after a teenage girl was killed by the car of a drunk driver and her mother decided to take action. In the past two decades of MADD’s heyday, drunk-driving deaths plummeted from 30,000 a year to 15,000.

States Ranked in “Fatal Fifteen”

Chicago, IL – A recent report identified the 15 most dangerous states
based on alcohol-related deaths. The report was published by End Needless
Death on Our Roadways (END), a group
of doctors and medical professionals dedicated to using new strategies to
lessen dangerous driving.

They announced the “Fatal Fifteen”-states in which 41% or more of
traffic-related casualties are caused by alcohol-related incidents. The
“Fatal Fifteen” in rank order are Washington D.C., Hawaii, Rhode Island,
Montana, Delaware, Alaska, North Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Texas,
Connecticut, South Dakota, Illinois, South Carolina and Arizona.

The report reveals that ten states of the “Fatal Fifteen” have made
the list ten years straight. Dr. Andrea Barthwell, Co-Chairperson of END
and former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy states, “We urge leaders in these states and
around the country to dedicate themselves to exploring new and innovative
strategies for addressing impaired and other dangerous driving
behaviors.”

The report also stresses the need for alcohol-related accident deaths
to decrease, especially around the time of the holidays. Barthwell
explains, “While the holiday season is a time for excitement, celebration
and family, it is also a time of impaired driving and senseless death and
injury.”

Victims numbering 17,000 were killed in the country last year and
4,300 of those deaths occurred in the “Fatal Fifteen” states.

Stricter drunk driving laws and a more public support has lowered the
number of drunk driving deaths, however in the last few years the death
rate has plateaued, and END finds these rates to be unacceptable.

The report proposes solutions via the medical profession in
particular. Outreach, education programs, and interventions could inform
patients with alcohol problems of the negative consequences of their
alcohol consumption. Further usage of interlock systems, which require
impaired drivers to measure their blood alcohol level, could also
address the problem. END also suggests that states consider implementing
initiatives and strategies that have proven effective in other
states.

View the full “Fatal
Fifteen” release from END (pdf download).

November 30, 2006

Big Drop in
Drunk-Driving Deaths – Tough Laws, Awareness Credited

Sunday, January 4, 2004

By Allison Steele

Monitor Staff

In 1982, 111 people were killed in drunk-driving deaths on New
Hampshire roads. In 2002: just 51.

Drunk-driving deaths on New Hampshire roads have decreased
dramatically in the last 20 years, a decline attributed to a combination
of public awareness and tough new laws.

In 1982, 111 people were killed in alcohol-related accidents in New
Hampshire. In 1992, that figure had dropped to just 40, an all-time low.
In 2002, it was 51.

The federal government compares drunk driving fatalities to the total
number of highway miles driven each year. Measured that way, New
Hampshire’s rate has declined 74 percent over 20 years.

Most of the rest of the country has seen similar declines, a recent
study by the federal Department of Transportation shows. But nationwide,
the number of drunk-driving deaths has begun creeping upward again in the
past three years.

Experts see the numbers as evidence that some drivers may be growing
inured to the warnings of the danger of impaired driving.

“A lot of people thought this problem was solved a long time ago,”
said Kathryn Henry, spokeswoman for the national Highway Traffic Safety
Administration. “We saw tremendous progress in the ’80s and ’90s. And now
it’s flattened out.”

A New World

For New Hampshire police officers, the dramatic decline over the past
two decades has meant significant changes in their work.

In Henniker, for example, New Year’s Eve 1989 was one busy night for
the police department. That was the year the department began 24-hour
coverage; until then, officers had stopped work at 1 a.m. The additional
patrols pulled in dozens of drunk-driving arrests that year, said Chief
Tim Russell, and similar numbers in the years that followed.

But by the mid-1990s, driving while intoxicated arrests were dropping
off. Now, New Year’s Eve and other traditionally driver-risky holidays
are among the department’s quietest nights. This year was no different:
no major accidents, no drunk-driving fatalities.

“We see less (DWIs) on those nights because they know we’re out in
force,” Russell said. “They carpool; they designate a driver. If people
would practice the same alternative driving plans year round as they do
on New Year’s, we wouldn’t have nearly so much of a problem.”

New Hampshire law now takes drunk driving fairly seriously: a
mandatory 90-day license revocation for a first offense, and a Class B
felony conviction for a third. In 1994, the state lowered the level of
blood alcohol required to be considered drunk from 0.10 to 0.08. A law
that took effect Thursday requires all first-time drunken drivers to
complete an impaired driver intervention program.

And state lawmakers have proposed laws to further criminalize drunk
driving. A bill sponsored by state Reps. Richard Morris and David Welch
would increase jail time for second-time offenders and make a first-time
offense a misdemeanor instead of a violation.

Welch said he hoped the bill would also emphasize the treatment of
alcohol problems. Since drunk driving is often an indication of a serious
drinking problem, he said stiffer penalties could help force people into
treatment programs.

“We’re hoping if we make punishments a little tougher, the idea will
be that it could get some people into treatment sooner,” he said. “My
feeling has always been that a first offender ought to have jail time.
I’m a very strong proponent of getting the message out there that if you
drink and drive, you’re going to go to jail.”

‘A jetliner every two days’

Across the country, more than 17,000 people died in alcohol-related
crashes in 2002, said Henry, about 41 percent of all traffic fatalities.
Large as that number may be, in 1982 the statistics were far more grim:
more than 26,000 people.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving was born in the early 1980s to target
the problem, and groups like DARE started devoting more attention to
drunk driving. Public awareness campaigns throughout the 1980s and ’90s
encouraged partygoers to call cabs, stay overnight or use designated
drivers, and the country’s rate of alcohol-related driving deaths
decreased steadily for almost two decades.

But now, Henry said, the “don’t drink and drive” campaigns that were
so successful in years past have become part of the national backdrop.
The country’s youngest generation of drivers, the population most at risk
for drunk-driving deaths, pays less attention to the rhetoric than did
teenagers and young adults in years past. And each year, a new generation
of drivers turns 21.

“We lose enough people to fill the equivalent of a jetliner every two
days to impaired driving,” Henry said. “If that happened, if planes were
falling out of the sky, this would be a huge issue on the front page of
every newspaper. But this is such an insidious problem. It happens in
remote places, every day, every 32 minutes.”

Not only are people more aware now of the dangers of driving while
impaired, cars are safer and laws in many states are stricter than they
were in 1982. However, Henry said, there remain dramatic inconsistencies
nationwide about how to deal with drunk-driving offenders. While some
states have adopted laws aimed at cracking down on drunk driving,
offenders in other states are often not prosecuted fully and get off with
relatively light punishments. Though the legal intoxication limit has
been designated as a blood alcohol level of 0.08 in most states, a
handful of states have left it at 0.10.

As states have lowered the legal blood alcohol level, the rate of
drunk-driving deaths often drop immediately. Drunk-driving deaths were
increasing in Rhode Island, with the state seeing a 30 percent increase
in fatalities over the past three years. In 2000 the legal blood alcohol
limit was changed to 0.08, and in the past year the deaths have dropped
by 7 percent. Colorado, one of the last states to maintain a 0.10 blood
alcohol level, has made consistently less progress than the rest of the
country in curbing the numbers of people killed in drunk-driving
crashes.

In the nine years since New Hampshire lowered its blood-alcohol level,
drunk-driving deaths have fluctuated between 50 and 67 a year.

Public Awareness

For many drivers, the threat of a fatal drunk-driving accident is
still more than enough to guide them into safe choices, said Don
Lesperance, owner of the Lakes Region Driver’s Education school. As with
all driving schools certified by the state, he’s required to teach a
minimum of eight hours about impaired driving. He doesn’t show the
gruesome movies about carnage on the highways, opting instead for films
about families that experience a death or movies that illuminate the
circumstances that can lead to tragic accidents.

“You look around the room and the kids are practically crying by the
end,” he said. “If we’re making a difference (in drunk-driving deaths)
that’s also a sign of the times, that kids are much smarter than that.
And not just about the ramifications of losing their license, in terms of
losing their friends.”

In addition to films, handouts and books, Lesperance said most kids
hear speakers on drunk driving in school. And sadly, many know someone
who died in an alcohol-related accident by the time they reach high
school.

“There’s been such a change in social attitudes,” he said. “Parents
these days tell their kids to call them and tell them to come get them if
they don’t have any other way of getting home. My parents didn’t talk to
me like that. And not that it always works that way, but it makes a huge
difference as far as a kid’s mindset goes. They know they have
options.”

Making people aware of those options is key, as far as organizations
like Henry’s are concerned. In light of the recent upswing in
drunk-driving fatalities, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration is preparing to unveil a new round of public awareness
campaigns. These will go beyond the usual drunk-driving message, Henry
said, and focus on “buzz driving.”

“A lot of these people think you have to be rip-roaring drunk to be
considered impaired,” she said. “We’re trying to get into the language
that hey, maybe it’s not okay to drive if you’ve just had a few. Do you
want to be flown in a plane by a pilot who’s just had a few? Do you want
to be operated on by someone who’s just had a few?”

The idea is not to preach against alcohol, Henry said, but to try and
reach some of the people for whom the years of “don’t drink and drive”
has not worked.

“The bottom line is that there’s a certain amount of the population
you can reach with public awareness, and those are the people who will
designate a driver, who will make the decision not to take a chance,”
Henry said.

“It’s similar to what you saw with the AIDS awareness movement,
encouraging people to use condoms. It was something they can grab onto.
It worked really well, and it does work really well. But now there’s a
whole new generation who are used to hearing it, and they need something
else.”