Posts Tagged ‘MADD’

Twice in the last three months, Philadelphia-area law enforcement officers have been involved in off-duty vehicle accidents that allegedly involve driving under the influence of alcohol.

For law enforcement officers, who absolutely, positively must be accountable to a higher standard than the people they are sworn to protect, that is unacceptable.

Last month, a 23-year-old off-duty Philadelphia Police officer was driving north on I-95 near Girard Avenue when his vehicle crashed into the rear of a state police car while two state troopers were assisting a tow truck driver who was preparing to remove an abandoned car, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The two troopers and the two truck driver sustained injuries and the off-duty city officer was being investigated for DUI and was placed on desk duty.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/ftwitty

In January, a 47-year-old, Philadelphia-based DUI expert and corporal for the Pennsylvania State Police was charged with drunken driving, careless driving and an open container violation in connection with an accident Dec. 17 when his car struck a guardrail on Route 422, according to a story in the Philadelphia Daily News. He was placed on administrative leave while the incident was being investigated.

We know that police officers are human like the rest of us and that this doesn’t only occur here in Philadelphia, but individual law enforcement agencies across the nation must work harder to stop this problem, and quickly.

It’s bad enough being involved in a vehicle accident. What makes it even worse is if you are hit by a vehicle driven by a drunken police officer, who is supposed to be out there protecting us all – even if they are “off-duty.”

We need to have effective alcohol treatment programs to help law enforcement officers who have drinking problems. And deny it or not, if they are driving drunk, they have drinking problems.

We need to have better mechanisms inside police departments to help officers who are showing signs of such problems. That means counseling programs, rehab programs and other support for officers who are troubled.

Yes, police work is an incredibly stressful, often violent and difficult job, but overconsumption of alcohol and illegal drugs is not the answer.

We need to help officers who are having these kinds of problems and encourage better, more productive coping mechanisms.

Law enforcement officers, as part of their jobs and responsibilities, automatically must live up to this higher standard of behavior because we give them the powers to watch over us if we behave in such irresponsible ways. There is no credibility in the legal system if law enforcement officers can be arrested for drunken driving one day and then arrest any of us and charge us with drunken driving on a different day.

There’s yet another effort underway in the state Legislature to try to change the decades-old laws that forbid beer sales in convenience stores and grocery stores across the Commonwealth.

Right now, you also can’t buy a six-pack of beer in a beer distributor in Pennsylvania — you can only buy a full case by law. You are, however, able to buy individual six-packs of beer from bars and restaurants that have liquor licenses which permit them to make such sales.

According to a story this week in The Philadelphia Inquirer, state  Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr., a Montgomery County Republican, is the latest state lawmaker to try his hand at expanding the legal sale of individual six-packs through beer distributors and grocery and convenience stores across the state, arguing that it’s about “consumer choice” and opening up freer competition for beer sales. Some convenience store executives, including Stan Sheetz, the CEO of the Sheetz convenience store chain, support the idea, according to the Inquirer. “We support this bill because it treats adults like adults and it protects the rights of beer drinkers,” Sheetz told the paper at a rally held in Harrisburg to promote the effort. His company has tried in the past to gain permission to sell individual six-packs of beer but has been stymied in the courts. That hasn’t deterred his company, however.  “Our beer laws are backward, they’re counter-intuitive, they’re inefficient, and they’re hypocritical,” he told the Inquirer.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/janisr

Well, he just may be right about Pennsylvania’s beer sale laws. They may truly be backward and counter-intuitive and inefficient and even hypocritical. But that’s fine, because they’re also smart. There are already plenty of places to buy beer here, at beer distributors by the case and in bars and restaurants by the six-pack.  No one who wants to buy beer is being denied the opportunity to buy the stuff.  But we certainly don’t need to make beer sales available at every street corner of every town and city across this state. We’ve got enough problems with under-aged drinking, drunk driving, alcohol-related crimes and other social ills caused by alcohol abuse.

Make it easier to buy and consume beer across the state just to allow a bigger revenue stream for stores and beer companies? That just doesn’t make sense from any standpoint at all.  It’s not an idea that would get a great reception from groups that are fighting these same kinds of problems every day, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

That would be a decision that would likely mean more alcohol-related vehicle accidents, crimes and incidents of under-aged drinking.

It’s a bad idea, a terrible precedent and an idea with no social merit. In fact, it’s irresponsible and wrong.

We need more libraries on street corners, more senior centers, more drug and alcohol treatment programs and more youth centers.

What we don’t need are more places to buy beer.

With the December holidays in full swing, from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa to Christmas to New Year’s Eve,  it’s a perfect time for us all to remember and carefully consider the dangers of  drinking and driving as we celebrate family, friends and festive events.

According to the activist group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), last year there were 11,773 fatalities nationally involving a driver with an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or greater.  That’s 11,773 too many drunk driving deaths.  And with this year’s holidays now upon us, according to MADD, the dangers caused by drunk drivers increases because vehicle travel is heavier on the roadways and drunk driving increases. In 2007, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, 1,495 people were killed nationally by drunk drivers, according to MADD.  In 2006, 1,566 people were killed.

Sobriety checkpoints will be set up across the nation this holiday season to prevent drunk driving. Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/sdominick

We all are responsible, starting with each of us individually, to choose not to consume alcoholic beverages and then hop into our vehicles and drive when our driving skills are impaired.

Bartenders, waiters, waitresses and restaurant and club owners are also responsible through liquor liability laws and dram shop liability to  ensure that none of their customers drinks so much that they are visibly intoxicated and a danger to others on the roads.  In Pennsylvania, and in other states, there are training programs for bartenders and wait staffs so that they learn when and how to stop customers who are drinking too much.  The Pennsylvania Liquor Control  Board (LCB) offers its  Responsible Alcohol  Management Program (RAMP), which offers a full range of important training.

That’s a good thing, but it doesn’t end there.

We are all stewards of this responsibility if we hold parties and serve alcohol, or if we attend parties where alcohol is being served.  You can be sued and held responsible for damages if someone is at your gala, drinks too much, drives away and is involved in a vehicle accident. You have to know to say no to your friends and loved ones if they party too much.  If someone is visibly intoxicated, don’t let them drive away on their own.  Get them in a taxicab or find them a ride with someone who has not been drinking. Let them sleep in your spare room. Do whatever it takes to prevent a tragedy.

Think of it this way — if your teen-aged son or daughter is out driving this holiday season, would you rather not allow drunk drivers to be out there on the streets with them, sharing the roads and plowing into them? That’s one reason why we all have to be vigilant for each other.  It doesn’t always happen to other families.  Such tragedies have perhaps happened to someone in your family, or a friend’s family. No more.

Starting tomorrow, states across the nation will begin stepping up their holiday drunk driving enforcement efforts as the national Governors Highway Safety Association joins the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and state and local law enforcement agencies to launch an extensive holiday drunk driving crackdown across the nation through Jan. 3, 2010. Here in Pennsylvania, police departments will be conducting increased DUI enforcement as part of the Operation Safe Holiday campaign.  More than 600 municipal police and all State Police Troops are expected to participate, according to the group.  Last year during the holiday crackdown, 262 DUI citations were written.

Make their work easier — don’t drink and drive.  Don’t become one of the statistics.  Don’t hurt or kill someone else or someone you love by driving drunk and getting into a serious accident.

Have a great time this holiday season, but let’s be responsible and careful out there.