Posted on 01/12/2005 9:26:30 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
MADD: Sobriety checks key to stopping drunken driving 1/12/2005, 6:56 p.m. ET
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The best way to further reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities is to set up more sobriety checkpoints, especially in the 10 states, including Michigan, that currently bar them, Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Wednesday.
"This is a proven, effective strategy," said MADD President Wendy Hamilton. "It really does have credible scientific backing that proves that it reduces alcohol-related fatalities by 20 percent."
Increasing the number of sobriety checkpoints and funding for advertising them is the group's first priority as it approaches its 25th anniversary this year and grapples with leveled-off figures in its mission to stop people from driving while impaired.
Last year in the United States, 17,013 traffic deaths were alcohol-related. That's 40 percent of the 42,643 traffic deaths logged by the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, about the same numbers as in recent years.
Concerned that 2003 was "the sixth consecutive year with no discernible progress in reducing alcohol-related crashes and fatalities," the House and Senate Appropriations committees asked the Transportation Department to do an audit, according to a Dec. 14 memo to NTHSA from Debra S. Ritt, the department's assistant inspector general for surface and maritime programs.
MADD wants law enforcement agencies to continue doing what works.
Sobriety checkpoints are the single most effective way to fight drunken driving because of their deterrent effect, Hamilton says. Her group points to several studies in the 1990s that found checkpoints — when conducted frequently and highly publicized — led to a decrease of 18 percent to 24 percent in alcohol-related traffic fatalities, injuries and property damage.
People who know police are conducting checkpoints in their area can decide before they go out about how to drink and whether to drive or designate someone else to do so.
The Supreme Court in 1990 upheld the legality of checkpoints, in which officers stop cars to check the drivers' sobriety.
Still, 10 states do not allow them, many because their constitutions have not been amended to reflect the court's decision. Besides Michigan, MADD listed the 10 states as Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The American Beverage Institute believes MADD changed the behavior of responsible drivers, but not repeat drunken driving offenders who account for a third of all drunken driving arrests. Sobriety checkpoints, says ABI president John Doyle, are more likely to persuade people to not drink at all when they visit a restaurant or a ball game.
"That is misguided because the people in the restaurants are not the drunk driving problem," Doyle said. A better strategy is so-called "DUI court," where offenders are forced to undergo testing and rehabilitation on their own dime, he said.
MADD supports similar strategies for habitual offenders, Hamilton said, but added that nothing works as well on the general population as checkpoints. As for repeat drunken drivers, even if the policy "doesn't deter them, it captures them," she said.
Outside of the border crossings - checkpoints are wrong. PERIOD.
A. 4th Amendment
B. Innocent till proven guilty.
And BTW - I don't DUI - last time I was borderline at a party and not walking home, I crashed there and drove home the next day.
its times like these i seriously push the backing of DAMM
drunks against mad mothers.
This is just another attack by the lefties of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to destroy the hospitality industry and institute a back door return to prohibition.
REJF took over MADD last year. RWJF is one of the prime financiers of smoking bans in bars and restaurants. In localities that get them passed, the funding is then switched to MADD.
I do not approve, at all, of drunk driving...but there is a thing as going too far in regard to prevention.
The RWJ Foundation jokers are a bunch of gun grabbers as well.
If you're in favor of moving farther along the path toward living in an oppressive police state, then yeah, this is a good idea.
I know about their gun grabbing ways as well, although I can't seem to pinpoint their financial interest in that as well as I can with the smoking and drinking.
Papieren, bitte!
Roadside summary executions stop a lot of things. /sarcasm
David Hemenway is their main link. Tied to RWJ and also the Joyce Foundation.
Not to mention Hememway is also tied to George Soros.
Great idea. While we're at it we can also pat folks down for guns. And cigarettes and junk food. And hate literature. Hell, check points can be used to cure just about any social ill!
Those weren't the type of financial interests I was thinking of regarding the gun grabbing......but may be the link.
My reference to smoking and drinking was toward pharmaceutical products. RWJF gets most of it's funding from Johnson&Johnson stock.....the makers of Nicotrol, the quit smoking product that makes you ill if you smoke with taking it. There is also a pharmaceutical product known as Anti-abuse (sp?) that makes one ill if they consume alcohol while taking it. I don't know if J&J makes that or a similar product, but it wouldn't surprise me.
The pharmaceutical industry's push against alcohol and tobacco are understandable because it gives them ample means of pushing their own products, which is why I was wondering about the gungrabbing stance. But I guess ties with other foundations, and wealthy gun grabbers could be behind that.
That's disgusting.
And the guy they did it to was one of the nicest people you could imagine. All in the spirit of protecting us from ourselves.
I can't emphasize enough, that I don't condone drunk driving.........HOWEVER.......these things have totally gotten out of hand, IMHO. I mean, they couldn't tell the guy wasn't drunk, just tired? Stupid.
Earlier I was going to make a wisecrack about having a beer or 2 or more, and decided against it. After seeing your post about that guy, I'm glad I chose not to make it.
and on that note, I will bid you goodnight.
The Second Amendment is key to stopping budding fascists.
...impose some stiff penalties on those that get convicted. Right now, just pay into the system of legal support, and all of those "mandatory" and "three strike" rules seem to evaporate!
One of the things that POs me no end is repeat drunk drivers, and I know several, and repeat violent felons. Why!
Of course hoping for any of that to change, one would be better served to place their hopes in Mecca being donated to Israel.
The RWJF is also a driving force behind the New Freedom Mental Health Initiative and its plans for widespread mental health screening in public schools.
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