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Tag: drunk driving

  • Alcohol Detection Devices May Soon Become Mainstream

    Alcohol Detection Devices May Soon Become Mainstream

    The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety could be ready for commercial use as soon as next year.

    A device now used only for those convicted of driving under the influence may soon become a universal piece of equipment in vehicles. 

    According to the Washington Post, government-funded researchers have been working on an ignition interlock for the past 10 years. The device would require drivers to measure their blood alcohol level before starting their vehicle and would prevent them from doing so if over the legal limit.  

    The device, dubbed the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS), would measure a driver’s BAC in two ways: one would be breath-based (and would not require a mouthpiece), while the other would be touch-based. The most important features of the device, according to officials on the project, is that it be “fast, precise and just about perfectly reliable in many different driving conditions,” as well as cheat-proof. 

    Robert Strassburger serves as president and chief executive of Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, which is part of the DADSS initiative. He tells the Post that while similar devices already exist, they simply aren’t up to the necessary standards. 

    “They are very difficult to use—they require that you provide a very large volume of breath from the very depths of your lungs,” he said. “Even people who use them regularly and are experienced in using them typically fail to provide a sufficient breath sample about 30% of the time.”

    Strassburger tells the Post that one of the most vital aspects of the device development is determining how humans process alcohol. 

    “That is one of the most significant challenges facing us in the development of this technology: How we, as individuals, absorb and eliminate alcohol is a function of our gender, our ethnicity, underlying health problems, [and] what we might be doing before or after we’ve consumed alcohol. All of that we have to understand,” he said.

    Strassburger states that the breath-based measurement would be done without a mouthpiece and would simply entail breathing from the driver’s seat. The touch-based system would work a bit differently.

    “If you’ve ever been to the doctor or the hospital and they clip that thing on the end of your finger that measures your pulse and the oxygen content of your blood, that’s a similar kind of concept,” he said. “We’re looking below the surface of the skin at your capillary bed and measuring how much alcohol is in your blood that way.”

    According to Strassburger, researchers are still working on a way to ensure that the breath or touch would be coming only from the driver and no one else. 

    If successful, experts predict the new devices could prevent 10,000 deaths annually. The device could be ready for commercial use as soon as next year.

    Last year, Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles utilized the device, and it’s also being road-tested currently at James River Transportation, a private company in Virginia.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sober Steering Wheel Could Save Lives

    Sober Steering Wheel Could Save Lives

    “My goal is for Sober Touch to go global and save lives all around the world,” said the device’s creator Lakesha Stines.

    Lakesha Stines was a child when a close family friend who was nine months pregnant was killed by a drunk driver. 

    “I was only 10 years old when it happened,” Stines told the New Haven Register. “This had a great impact on my life to see her and her baby lying in that casket at such a young age.”

    Decades later, Stines, now 42, has invented a product that she hopes will spare other families the same tragedy—the “Sober Touch Sensoring” steering wheel, which can detect alcohol in a person’s sweat. 

    According to Stines, the product will prevent drunk driving. When a person touches the wheel, the sensors read whether there is alcohol present in their sweat. The car will not start if a driver has alcohol levels that are over the legal limit. 

    “When you get in your car and you touch those sensors after drinking, it’s going to calculate your blood alcohol level through the perspiration in the palms of your hands,” Stines told WTNH News 8. 

    Stines has high hopes for the product. “My goal is for Sober Touch to go global and save lives all around the world.”

    According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), about 30 people are killed each day by drunk drivers. Bob Garguilo, executive director of MADD in Connecticut, where Stines lives, says that the steering wheel could help reduce that number. 

    He said, “A device requiring a driver to prove they are sober before their car will start will save lives.”

    It could be an important tool for advancing toward MADD’s ultimate mission of eliminating deaths caused by drunk driving. “MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving was created so that one day there will be no more victims,” Garguilo said. 

    Stines says that the steering wheel will cost as little as $400, and could be available to be in cars by the end of the year. It’s not clear whether she envisions it in all cars or used by people who have previously been caught driving drunk—some of whom are required by court mandate to have a breathalyzer installed in their vehicles. 

    Stines has received recognition from local elected officials and also people in the industry who can help her bring the steering wheel to fruition. 

    She said, “People have been taking me to the next level—taking me to where I need to be because they believe in what I’m doing.”

    Most importantly, she feels that her dear family friend is looking out for the project. 

    “I know she’s so excited in spirit about what I’m doing and I know she’s smiling, I know she’s like, ‘Go get ‘em.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • One Simple Decision: Gratitude and Sorrow

    One Simple Decision: Gratitude and Sorrow

    My sobriety cost too much; I have always believed this and now, after 15 consecutive years, I am sure that I always will believe this.

    It’s eight o’clock in the morning and I am sitting at the desk in my office. I’m not at work officially yet, won’t be for another hour or so. Then the race will start. Kara had asked me if I wanted to go to a meeting this morning, to pick up my 15 year coin. I didn’t.

    She said, “The day can look however you want. I have a babysitter, so if you want to go out after work and celebrate, then we can do that…or nothing.”

    I said that I thought that this year I just wanted it to be a day, just to be a day like any other day. Sometimes I really want the celebration, but this year, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to come in here and sit and think and spend some time alone. So, I woke up early, my daughter’s warm, tiny body next to me through the night sleeping heavily after a late evening of trick-or-treating excitement, costumes, candy, and other children running wildly through the streets. Kara, still exhausted, is next to her, a new puppy sleeping soundly at her shoulder. There is a cat at her feet curled up contentedly as all cats sleep. Last night we went to bed laughing about this — the animals, our child, about the busy place that our bed has become. I pointed out that nine years ago this would have been an absolute dream come true.

    Kara said, “Nine years ago this couldn’t have even been imagined!” and we laughed together at our own amazement.

    Today is the 15th anniversary of my sobriety. It is a date that is perpetually entwined with gratitude and sorrow. This is a date that I will always celebrate and mourn. My sobriety cost too much; I have always believed this and now, after 15 consecutive years, I am sure that I always will believe this.

    Sobriety always comes at a cost. I’ve been around enough 12-step rooms and other sober support communities to know this.

    It is veritably impossible to hear a person’s recovery story without being very often stunned and amazed by the levels of grief and despair that their recovery has cost. The cost of my own sobriety was lives. I still shake my head 15 years later even as I write those words. It just doesn’t seem possible still. I can just never make it better. Not ever.

    I am Sysiphus, eternally condemned to pushing a boulder to the top of this mountain.

    But it is also great, which is an odd dissonance. It’s a perpetual mourning, but also an absolute celebration, and discovery, and adventure.

    I work with people daily in very early recovery. They sit in my office and cry and are angry and are desperate and scared. They sit across from me and I see myself. It would be impossible not to. The words they use, the language they use, is a close memory hermetically sealed forever in my mind. I listen to them and I hear myself. I feel sad for them, and grateful that for me that the chaos has ended. It has finally ended. I remember how it felt to have the heavy fog of eternal delusion lift and what it felt like to start to see for what felt like the first time ever. And I am so grateful for the utter simplicity of today’s problems.

    But again, I question the cost.

    One simple decision.

    One very simple, very wrong, decision.

    And some poor soul never gets to see their child again, their parent again, someone they love ever again, and there is no way to ever make that better. That can never be made better again.

    After taking Story trick-or-treating last night, she climbs excitedly into her car seat and asks for her bounty, her new treasures, her bucket of goods scored on a lively Hallows Eve. Kara tells her that she doesn’t want Story to eat all of that candy and make herself sick. Story insists that she won’t. We relent and let her have her reserve. On the way home we are absolutely charged. What a great night! We tell Story what a good kid she was and how much we appreciated her saying “thank-you” to all of the people that gave her candy. And because I never want her to forget it, I remind her of all of the great things we did leading up to this night. I ask her to join in with me, and we laugh about corn mazes and hot apple cider. We talk about apple picking and candy corn. We revel in her having been read the entire first Harry Potter book not once, but twice! We remember carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds.

    Occasionally, Story asks if she can turn the light on in the van so that she can carefully pick her next treat. Kara says she can do it as long as she does it quickly, and I can hear the crinkling of tiny brown wrappers behind me and I am filled to the brim with love and joy and just Life!

    And then I wonder…

    Was this what it was like for them?

    Fifteen years later this is what I have to offer not just my own victims, but the world. This is what I owe:

    My boundless gratitude.

    My eternal apologies.

    My diligence and determination.

    My thankfulness.

    My joy.

    My promise.

    My sobriety.

    Thank you to everyone, friends, and families, my victims, just everyone, who has made this incredibly magical, and far too meaningful journey possible. Thank you all. And please don’t drink and drive. Please. Just don’t.

    Peace.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Drunk Driving

    Drunk Driving

    ARTICLE OVERVIEW: This article provides a brief review of the consequences you face if you get arrested for drunk driving. 

    TABLE OF CONTENTS:

    What’s the Drunk Driving Limit?

    Alcohol is a depressant. It works by slowing down the activity of the central nervous system. When you drink, information and activity across the brain is delayed. Plus, alcohol impairs cognitive and psychomotor skills. For these reasons, drinking and driving increases the risk of:

    • Car accidents
    • Injuries
    • Vehicular deaths

    So, what’s the official limit for drink driving?

    According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it is illegal to drive with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.8 g/dL or higher in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This means that your BAC needs to be lower than 0.8 g/dL if you drive. If you’re over that limit, you’re considered to be “alcohol-impaired”.

    Alcohol Impairment >= 0.8 g/dL BAC

    However, the current limit is up for debate. There is evidence that driving impairment may occur at lower BACs. This article published in the British Medical Journal  challenges us to accept even this alcohol limit for drunk driving. The authors think that 0/8 g/dL is high, and it needs to be much lower.

    Also, there is a zero tolerance for alcohol levels in drivers who are minors, under the age of 21. You can find more info about the state policies on underage drinking and driving here. Zero tolerance is also required for operators of a commercial motor vehicle, school bus drivers, and child care vehicle drivers.

    Levels of alcohol impairment are determined by a driver’s BAC at the time of arrest.

    DUI vs. DWI

    Drunk driving is known as both DUI or DWI. Both acronyms describe the illegal act of operating a motor vehicle while alcohol and/or drugs impaired. The main difference lies in the meaning of the letters:

    • DUI= Driving Under the Influence
    • DWI= Driving While Intoxicated

    NOTE: In some states, the term ‘Driving While Intoxicated’ is referred to as “Operating While Intoxicated,” or OWI.

    These terms may sound identical, but some states classify these two conditions as separate crimes. If you live in a state that classifies them separately, a DUI is considered  a lesser level of impairment, and is charge more leniently than a DWI. In other jurisdictions, DUI is only used when the driver is alcohol-impaired, while DWI is only used when the driver is under the influence of drugs. Other states have created a zero tolerance policy which means that there is no distinction between DUI and DWI. These states mandate that any BAC over the legal limit is a crime.

    Drunk Driving Dangers

    Driving after drinking can cause direct harm and can end in death. Getting behind the wheel after few drinks can be dangerous not only to you, but also to the other drivers and pedestrians.

    Approximately one-third of all traffic crash fatalities in the U.S. involve a drunk driver.

    Roughly, over 10,000 people die every year due to driving under influence. But death is not the only danger that you are facing when DUI. Some legal consequences may include:

    … and more.

    Drunk Driving Accident Statistics

    Statistically speaking, young men aged 21 to 35 are the critical target group for drunk driving. They are most likely to drive drunk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2010, 4 million U.S. adults reported that had at least one episode of drunk driving. 81% were men, and 32% were young men aged between 21 to 34.

    In 2016, more than 1 million drivers were arrested for DUI of alcohol or narcotics. To confirm these numbers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that in 2016, 1,017,808 drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. However, this is only 1% of the 111 million self-reported episodes of DUI among U.S. adults each year.

     

    Finally, the financial impact is devastating: impaired driving crashes costs our American society $44 billion annually.

    An estimated 28% of all traffic fatalities occur due to drunk driving.

    Drunk Driving Death & Fatalities Statistics

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported just over 10k fatalities in motor vehicle crashes involving drivers with BACs of 0.8 d/dL or higher in 2016. To put it another way, 28% of all traffic fatalities in 2016 were due to alcohol impairment.

    1 person dies every 50 minutes due to alcohol-impaired driving.

    The top 5 states with the highest number of drunk driving fatalities in 2016 included:

    • Texas 3,776
    • California 3,623
    • Florida 3,174
    • Georgia 1,554
    • North Carolina 1,450

    Check out all state statistics in this NHTSA pamphlet on Traffic Safety Facts.

    Moreover, this NHTSA report looks into the innocent victims of drunk driving accidents. In 2016, a total of 1,233 children were killed in motor vehicle crashes, and of these fatalities, 214 children died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. 45% of the time, the child’s own driver was under the influence of alcohol.

    Also, CDC reports that from all motor vehicles deaths:

    • 1.3% were children aged 0 to 20 who died due to drunk driving.
    • 6.7% were young adults aged 21 to 35 who died due to drunk driving.
    • 3.1% were adults aged 35+ who died due to drunk driving.

    Men are more likely than women to be driving in fatal accidents. In 2016, 21% of males were drunk in these crashes, while only 14% were females.

    Find state-specific fact sheets made by CDC here.

    About one in three traffic deaths in the United States involves a drunk driver.

    You know what?

    This cause of these deaths is preventable.

    Indentify a designated driver or plan a safe way home when you plan to drink.

    Drunk Driving Laws

    Laws about drunk driving are set up differently by state. This is why penalties and sentences vary in every state. Commonly, laws involve a combination of the following:

    • Enormous fines
    • Jail time
    • Loss of your driving license
    • Mandated treatment

    For instance, in North Carolina, there are five levels of DWI misdemeanor:

    • Level I being the most serious with a fine up to $4,000 and a minimum jail sentence of 30 days to a maximum of two years.
    • Level V being the least serious with a fine up to $200 and a minimum jail sentence of 24 hours and a maximum of 60 days.

    Another example is California with fours days in jail for the first offense, 90 days for a second offense, and 120 days for a third offense. Texas mandates three days of jail for the first offense, 30 days for the second, and two years for the third.

    Moreover, vehicular assault or vehicular manslaughter brings severe outcomes in most of the states. For example, a person convicted of vehicular manslaughter may face anywhere from zero to 10 years in prison in California. This state recognizes two different charges: Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated (facing 4-10 years in state prison), and Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated (up to one year in the county jail or about 16 months in the state prison).

    Additionally, different states are more or less aggressive in their DUI and DWI arrest quota. A collection of 2014 DUI arrest research reported the following results after one year of tracking:

    • California had 214,828 arrests
    • Florida had 61,852 arrests
    • New York had 25,169 arrests
    • Texas had 90,066 arrests.

    Consequences of Driving Drunk

    What’s the price for having few drinks on a night out and then driving?

    If you get arrested, some legal consequences may include:

    • Going to jail.
    • Going into court-ordered alcoholism treatment.
    • Losing the custody of your children.
    • Losing your driving license.
    • Losing your job.
    • Paying a fine.

    Moreover, if your DUI arrest is combined with a manslaughter conviction, some consequences include the loss of:

    • Custody of children, and parental rights.
    • Employment in certain fields.
    • Government financial aid for college.
    • Jury rights.
    • Professional practice licensing
    • Public housing benefits.
    • Traveling abroad rights.
    • Voting rights.

    Drunk Driving Help and Treatment

    During a DUI court hearing, the defendant will  usually be required to be evaluated by a qualified court-appointed counselor for an alcohol use disorder assessment. The job of the counselor is to review the court’s records, to conduct the screening process, and to appoint the appropriate alcohol treatment options.

    The counselor will take into account:

    • BAC at the time of arrest.
    • History of substance use treatment.
    • The alcohol-impaired offenses.
    • Possibility of other drug use.
    • Possibility of presence of any other mental health disorders.

    A treatment referral will be made of one or a combination of the following:

    1. Medical detox.
    2. Outpatient rehab program.
    3. Inpatient rehab program.
    4. Support groups.

    Once the counselor’s observation is completed, the judge can refer the convicted driver to a host of many rehab programs, starting from a few sessions to structured programs that can last several weeks or months. In some severe cases, the court can order the driver to an inpatient program, while in other cases, the court may appoint only local community services, such as Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. Also, the judge may put the driver on probation.

    Court-ordered alcohol rehab is a concern for its effectiveness. Is rehab effective when it isn’t voluntary? Many studies have well established that recovery and willingness to change must come from within the individual. However, the National Institute on Drug Abuse supports the fact that court-appointed rehab can outcome with as positive results as those who enrolled into rehab on their own. Also, the persons who enrolled into rehab under legal pressure have higher rates of attendance, and stay in rehab for longer period.

    Your Questions

    Did we answer all the questions you have about a DUI or DWI? If not, feel free to post your specific question in the comments section at the end. We will try to answer to all legitimate inquiries personally and promptly.

    Reference Sources: NCBI: The Effectiveness of Drinking and Driving Policies for Different Alcohol-Related Fatalities: A Quantile Regression Analysis 
    CDC: Sobering Facts: Drunk Driving State Fact Sheets
    NHTSA: Drunk Driving
    CDS: Impaired Driving: Get the facts
    US Department of Transportation: Drunk Driving By the Numbers 

    View the original article at

  • Are Men More Likely To Engage In Risky Drinking?

    Are Men More Likely To Engage In Risky Drinking?

    Apparently men and women differ in how they approach the legal drinking age.

    Driving drunk, getting in physical fights and taking part in risky sexual behavior—all three of these are more common in men than women when the drinking age starts at 21, according to new research. 

    WUWM reports that while previous research supports the fact that there is an increase in alcohol-related deaths and violent crimes at age 21, Jason Fletcher, a professor and researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wanted to reach beyond those statistics.

    Fletcher wanted to zone in on other “problem areas” that follow the legal drinking age. 

    To do so, Fletcher studied data from Add Health, a study covering adolescent to adult health in the U.S. What he found pointed to men facing more consequences than women after turning 21.

    “There is just nothing I can discern from the data of negative impacts along the outcomes that I examine for women,” Fletcher said, according to WUWM. “The individuals in the data, when they turn 21, they do drink more, but the consequences that I examined, women don’t seem to have those consequences.”

    According to WUWM, Fletcher says one possible response is for authority figures, such as parents, to step in and remind their children of the risks of drinking as they approach 21.

    “And, it might be a reasonable intervention to remind parents of individuals about to turn 21, that especially their sons, about these negative consequences,” Fletcher stated. “Maybe they could at least be part of these interventions, in terms of reducing these risky behaviors right around the legal age of drinking.” 

    Another part of Fletcher’s research was the discovery that parental involvement won’t necessarily deter children from risky drinking. The research actually found that children around age 21 living with parents have steeper increases in risky drinking than those children living away from their parents. 

    Last year, a bill to lower Wisconsin’s drinking age to 19 was presented in the state legislature. However, Fletcher’s solution would be to move in the other direction, by increasing the legal drinking age for men to 22 or 23—though he acknowledges that it’s not likely Wisconsinites would approve such a change.

    View the original article at thefix.com