This is my second try at this post. Goldenwest internet service croaked before I could post the previous effort and TypePad saved the title, but not the text. Anyway, on Sunday, August 26. 2012, I was surprised to see on Winner's Taft St. a truck van as large as a school bus with about two-foot high letters reading "POLICE" in blue and red and near the rear of the van was "BAT-BReath Alcohol Testing". I was interested when I saw that because roughly 40 years ago I worked as Assistant Director and Public Information Officer for the South Dakota Alcohol Safety Program (SD:ASAP). That was a federally funded highway safety demonstration project. South Dakota was one of the 30 or 40 across the country. We may have been the only state project. The rest may have been city and county efforts. My memory fails me on that.
SD:ASAP was kind of a pioneer in gaining data and presenting data concerning drunken and impaired driving in South Dakota. Our efforts coupled with approval from the SD Legislature resulted in state laws requiring blood alcohol tests of victims and drivers in fatal alcohol-related highway crashes. The first year data indicated 68% of the fatal crashes involved alcohol-impairment and a few more crashes in remote areas without coroners may have brought the total percentage closer to 75%. It was bad enough at 68%.
With that kind of background, I could not resist a photo of the vehicle shown below.
Click on image for a larger version. I talked to the staff in the vehicle. They said this was one of three of these in the US running under support of NHTSA, BIA, and tribes. The system includes the newest breathalyzer technology and blood test capability coupled to a lot of electronic data and communication equipment. Also a jail at the rear of the vehicle.
I did some searching for more information this morning before GWTC and TypePad ate my post. The information below related directly to the vans and the extent of the problem;
A new tool being deployed this year is the BAT (Breath Alcohol Testing) mobile, four of which were delivered in November to three OJS law enforcement districts based in Billings, Mont., Albuquerque, N.M., and Muscogee, Okla., for use by tribal law enforcement. The districts serve
77 federally recognized tribes, with a combined population of 581,756, in seven states.
The 40-foot long mobile units, which cost approximately $300,000 apiece, use state-of-the art lighting, camera and communications systems. Each has an Intoxilyzer 8000 to precisely measure breath alcohol levels, a containment cell to transport suspects and an interior camera to
produce court-quality videos of the testing process. Each unit also is decorated on the outside with colors and design elements that reflect American Indian culture, with police identification
on the back and sides, and has space on the back for a user-tribe’s seal. The units were manufactured by Farber Specialty Vehicles of Ohio.
According to the NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis, in the five-year period from 2002 to 2006, 3,262 Native Americans lost their lives in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, 1,864 (or 57 percent) involved an alchohol-impared driver or motorcycle operator who
was at or above the legal limit of .08.
However, impaired driving is one of the deadliest problems not just in Indian Country, but in America. The NHTSA estimates that in 2007 there were approximately 13,000 total fatalities in crashes involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 or higher. And the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that there were about 1.5 million DWI
(driving while impaired) arrests in 2007 – an average of 167 arrests per hour. Source Link for this information
The PDF file below has interesting data, charts and maps conerning the damage and costs of fatal alcohol-related crashes on several Native Reservations in the US.
NHTSA, BIA, Highway Safety Plan (PDF)
As you can see from the above, alcohol sales cost taxpayers millions or billions per year in needless highway, vehicle, prison, jail, adjudification expenses needless otherwise. Roughly half your vehicle insurance bill results because of drunken driving.
After 40 years of paying some attention to these and other social issues, I have concluded that there are two things which might actually significantly reduce alcohol-related crashes without enormous expense. One of these is to require that licenses be required to purchase alcohol and those licenses would act as a debit card which could only be refreshed at County Treasurer offices. The ID number on these cards and a dealer ID number would have to be etched or stamped permanently on every can or bottle purchased. Part two of this would require that one week to the day following an Alcohol-related fatal crash in any state, all businesses selling alcohol would be closed for one day and a notice prominently placed to indicate why they are closed for that day with information on the fatal crash included. The liquor industry would sober up about responsibility to stop fueling alcoholics addiction and also to stop drumping drunks out onto the highways.
There is no reason that responsible sober drivers and car owners should pay such a huge price to keep an irresponsible, unnecessary industry afloat.
*** Stay tuned and drive sober and be thankful for the halo effect that surrounds these vans--Doug Wiken
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