SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – One choice to drive whereas impaired with alcohol or medicine is one too many, however have the academic campaigns geared toward stopping individuals from driving drunk or excessive labored?
There have been 43 arrests for DUI within the South Lake Tahoe metropolis limits within the first three months of 2022, 5 on one night time. In the course of the first three months of 2020, there have been 52 DUI arrests and 35 in 2021. These numbers are so much, and other people on the street are in peril when the choice is made to drink and drive. There may be at all times fixed schooling accessible by legislation enforcement businesses, tv, social media, and public relations campaigns to drive the purpose dwelling.
Is the issue rising, or enhancing?
Listed below are some numbers for South Lake Tahoe:
2005 – 368 DUI arrests
2007 – 212 DUI arrests
2010 – 206 DUI arrests
2015 – 125 DUI arrests
2020 – 158 DUI arrests
2021 – 132 DUI arrests
There are a number of explanations for what seems to be like fewer DUI arrests. Lyft and Uber have been round since 2011, so selections to not drive dwelling are simpler to make. It may very well be the stricter legal guidelines and penalties for driving whereas impaired, or due to a better concentrate on not getting behind the wheel if impaired.
South Lake Tahoe Police Division (SLTPD) Sgt. Doug Sentell is the division’s site visitors sergeant and is properly versed in collisions, their trigger, Workplace of Site visitors Security (OTS) grants, and DUis.
In a single yr whereas on patrol, Sentell had 103 DUI arrests. Only one officer, in a single yr, and in a single city.
SLTPD will probably be rolling out some DUI saturation patrols, ones that need to be publicized previous to being carried out. SLTPD Lt. Travis Cabral stated that exterior of the grant, the patrol division is recurrently targeted on DUI enforcement.
“It’s one in every of our prime priorities with site visitors enforcement,” stated Cabral.
The OTS grant supplies the division with funding for a variety of traffic-related enforcement together with DUI enforcement, enforcement of major collision violations, seat belts, cellphone enforcement, and different types of distracted driving.
The primary explanation for site visitors collisions in South Lake Tahoe is the pace of a car with improper turning following in second, stated Sentell. DUIs are third, and fourth are right-of-way violations.
When SLTPD responds to a collision they consider the first trigger, and ask themselves ‘what precipitated this crash?’
The officers have focused enforcement to fight the highest causes for collisions – dashing, making unsafe turns, DUIs, and right-of-way violations.
“Our division sought out, and received, a grant to fight issues of safety that trigger crashes – distracted driving, seatbelts, DUIs, and car/motorbike, bicycle, and pedestrian points,” stated Sentell.
SLTPD has prioritized and combated these points, stated Sentell. They’ve coaching in superior site visitors reconstruction and may decide the principle explanation for a crash.
A crash might contain a drunk driver just like the deadly crash on Pioneer Path in 2014, however pace or one other trigger stands out as the figuring out issue. In that 2014 crash, the motive force was going 93 mph. Take away the alcohol, would the pace have been that prime? We’ll by no means know.
In 2021, there have been 21 deadly crashes in El Dorado County, inflicting the lack of 22 lives, 14 of them on account of DUI.
“Even when not ingesting, in case you are round others who’re that you must be accountable drivers, mates, and relations,” stated Fresno County District Lawyer Lisa A. Smittcamp in a statewide district attorney press conference in December. “Seize the keys! Take accountability and be accountable, should you see one thing, say one thing.”
“Even with elevated efforts to curb ingesting and driving, numbers of DUI and DUI-caused fatalities are nonetheless climbing,” stated El Dorado County District Lawyer Vern Pierson.
In 1983 the Advert Council and the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (below the U.S. Division of Transportation – U.S. DOT) partnered to launch the Drunk Driving Prevention marketing campaign. It got here at a time when many Individuals have been nonetheless unaware of the magnitude of the issue of ingesting and driving. Specialists predicted that one out of each two Individuals can be concerned in an alcohol-related site visitors accident in his or her lifetime.
The primary marketing campaign was “Consuming & Driving Can Kill A Friendship.”
In a 1986 ballot, 62 p.c of younger Individuals reported that they have been now extra acutely aware of the risks of drunk driving than they’d been beforehand and 34 p.c refused to drink in any respect after they have been planning to drive. Moreover, the U.S. DOT reported a 25 p.c lower within the variety of drunk drivers killed in site visitors accidents between 1980 and 1990.
In 1990, new public service bulletins inspired mates to intervene with a view to stop a drunk individual from getting behind the wheel launched the tagline, “Associates Don’t Let Associates Drive Drunk.” This difficult-hitting marketing campaign was instrumental in reaching a ten p.c lower in alcohol-related fatalities between 1990 and 1991.
However drunk driving nonetheless causes greater than 10,000 deaths yearly within the U.S., about one-third of all traffic-related deaths.
On one other notice, the phrase “accident” shouldn’t be utilized by legislation enforcement when a collision is brought on by a preventable motion, akin to ingesting, dashing, and different unsafe actions.
