Drunk Driving Deaths Rise in NJ

Drunken driving deaths, on the decline until recently, have leveled off or increased in Pennsylvania and New Jersey due to loopholes, inconsistencies and attitudes, a newspaper reported.

Drunken-driving crashes killed 937 people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 2000, up from 896 the year before.

In 1999, for the first time in nine years, alcohol-related crashes killed more people in the United States than murder, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in Sunday editions.

Former U.S. highway safety official Robert B. Voas said the trend has experts "chagrined." Local transportation authorities, while emphasizing the gains of the past quarter-century, are cautious about future progress.

"My true assessment is we're on top of this thing and holding it down, but it is still wiggling," said Lou Rader, head of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Alcohol Safety Program.

"We certainly are disappointed that (deaths) have gone up somewhat, but we don't know why," said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of New Jersey Highway Traffic Safety.

The Inquirer, in the first of a four-part series, said while police have grown more vigilant about detecting and arresting drunken drivers, enforcement differs by area. Some places have high alcohol-related crash rates but relatively low DUI arrest levels, the paper said.

"Over here, the police sit near the bars waiting for people to come out," said repeat DUI offender John J. Toole, 52, of Stratford, N.J., about enforcement in South Jersey. "You don't see that happen in Philadelphia. ...They are busy handling the murder down on the corner."

The Inquirer's analysis, based on liquor licenses and five years of accident data, said while things such as road design, weather and speed factor into crashes, those involving alcohol happen most where bars and restaurants are concentrated.

"The number of outlets per mile of roadway is really the determining factor in the number of crashes," said Paul J. Gruenwald of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. "Those places present a significant public health risk."

The newspaper, after analyzing crash data from 1996-2000 from PennDOT and other sources, cited two roads as especially dangerous.

One was Route 3, which becomes West Chester Pike outside of Philadelphia, and had 22.2 accidents per mile. The other was a five-mile stretch of New Falls Road in Bucks County had 20 accidents per mile.

PennDOT uses such data to draw its own maps and place warning signs, then offers county funding to help local police set up sobriety checkpoints.

But some local authorities don't know about the color-coded maps. And Delaware County, with a relative high rate of alcohol-related deaths, turns down state funding for checkpoints.

Neither Pennsylvania nor New Jersey have lowered blood-alcohol limits for drivers from .10 to .08, even though that cost them a total of $8 million in federal funds last year.

"We're seeing a complacency in America," Mothers Against Drunk Driving president Millie I. Webb said. "They think since MADD's inception that we solved this problem."

Researchers believe DUI crash and arrest figures are deceptively low, and a driver can drive drunk up to 1,000 times before an arrest, the paper said. Many hit-and-run drivers are believed to be DUIs who did not get caught.

A major problem is that no one has figured out how to stop those who drive drunk even after repeated DUI arrests.

"Jail doesn't do it," said Howard J. Geiger of Gloucester County, N.J., who used to drive with a six-pack in his car and had 26 arrests before he stopped drinking in 1991. License suspensions – his is suspended until 2113 – had no effect, and neither did court-ordered classes and counseling.

"Some people like me don't get it until after a long time," Geiger said. "As alcoholics, we drank because it was hot, because it was cold. Because it was raining. We always had a reason to drink, but never a reason to stop."

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Author: 6 ABC-AP