Be the Wall - Wednesday's Tips - 8/5/09
"Be the Wall - Wednesday's Tips" - August 5, 2009
Author: Amity Chandler, Director of Drug Free Charlotte County
email: Amity_Chandler@ccps.k12.fl.us
DUI checkpoints save more than just lives
A great way to reach your target population is to team up with your next DUI checkpoint to provide drivers with campaign info as they are waiting in traffic!
The BTW postcard or bumper sticker would be a great piece to give them!
After DUI checkpoints, letters to the editor often show up complaining
about the inconvenience or constitutionality of the checkpoints. Here is a
letter that you can use to defend checkpoints and encourage more in your
community. Feel free to edit it to meet your needs.
DUI checkpoints save more than just lives
Editor,
In response to recent letters to the editor that have complained about
local efforts to conduct DUI checkpoints, let me offer the following
facts:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that for one of
every 110 miles driven in Florida in 2000, a person with a blood alcohol
concentration greater than the legal limit sat behind the wheel. An
estimated total of 135,300 crashes in Florida involved alcohol, which
killed 1,191 and injured an estimated 49,100 individuals. If the value of
human life does not move your readers, lets talk dollars and cents. NTSA
reports that the average alcohol-related fatality in Florida costs $3.4
million and the estimated cost per injured survivor of an alcohol-related
crash is $99,000. NTSA also reports that alcohol-related crashes accounted
for an estimated 17% of Florida’s auto insurance payments and that
reducing alcohol-related crashes by 10% would save $180 million in claims
payment and loss adjustment expenses.
The chosen times and days for DUI checkpoints are not arbitrary. The
National Center for Statistics and Analysis reports that the rate of
alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is more than three times as high at
night as during the day, 61% compared to 18%. For fatal crashes from
midnight to 3:00 AM, 77% involved alcohol. The next most dangerous period
for alcohol-related crash deaths are 9 PM to midnight, with 64% of all
fatal crashes involving alcohol, followed by 3 AM to 6 AM with 50% of
fatal crashes involving alcohol. In total, it is reported that between 1
AM and 6 AM, an average of one in every seven drivers is legally drunk.
In 2003, 30% of all fatal crashes during the week were alcohol related,
compared to the 53% on weekends.
Discussions of the constitutional legality and driver inconvenience are
arbitrary when weighed with the importance of human life. I would rather
suffer the inconvenience of a DUI checkpoint or other enforcement
activities that curb drunk driving than lose a loved one to a drunk
driver.