Extra DUI patrols will be in effect throughout much of King County from August 14 through September 7 as law enforcement agencies search for impaired drivers.
The Drive Hammered, Get Nailed campaign will involve police in a number of jurisdictions, including Bellevue and surrounding cities, as well as the Washington State Patrol.
Bellevue actually continues such patrols year-round.
Officials note that there are numerous myths surrounding impaired driving, chief of which is that one must have consumed alcohol in order to be arrested for DUI. Not true, they say.
Drivers can become impaired by the use of illegal, prescription, and even over-the-counter drugs, or some combination of these, with or without the presence of alcohol.
Other myths:
* FALSE: You can sober up quickly by drinking coffee, taking a cold shower or consuming an energy drink. TRUTH: Only time will sober you up. It typically takes about one hour for each drink that has been consumed.
* FALSE: It’s OK to drive impaired if you are only going a short distance. TRUTH: It is never safe to drive under the influence.
* FALSE: My doctor wouldn’t have prescribed the medicine if it wasn’t safe to drive while taking it. TRUTH: Prescription medications can impair you. If the bottle indicates that it is not safe to operate heavy machinery, you should not drive after taking that medication.
* FALSE: I can’t be arrested for DUI if I am under a .08. TRUTH: You can be arrested for DUI if your ability to drive is affected by any substance, regardless of your blood alcohol content (BAC).
These days there is a statewide network of specially trained law enforcement officers able to identify drivers who are under the influence of illegal, prescription, and/or over-the-counter drugs. They are called Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) and they are trained extensively about the differing effects of drugs and/or alcohol on the body.
DRE Deputy Alan Tag from the King County Sheriff’s Office stopped a driver who was licking his cell phone and who later tested positive for cocaine. One indicator Tag looks for in an impaired driver is the inability to multi-task. People typically talk while doing multiple tasks with no problem, so he becomes suspicious if a driver can’t answer a question while looking for their registration and insurance.
DRE Trooper Dan McDonald, WSP Bellevue detachment, once stopped a highly impaired educator who was swerving all over the road at 2:30 a.m. After he was in custody for DUI, the driver began classifying people in three different categories. In extremely slurred speech he repeatedly stated that based on his job and economic situation he was in the best of the three categories and therefore he should have been let go. He blew a .179 and was booked into jail for the weekend. A jury convicted him of DUI.
DRE Officer Mark Brinkman of the Lynnwood Police Department conveyed an encounter with one drug-affected driver who was driving on the wrong side of the road. After being stopped, the driver was not aware of where she was or why she was driving at night. She had been prescribed Ambien, a sleep aid, and apparently had taken the medication earlier that evening before bed then realized she needed milk and bread for the morning and had attempted to go the store. She was arrested for impaired driving.
In Washington state, the DRE program and toxicology testing are resulting in better identification of the effects of drugs on drivers. Between 1998 and 2007, drug-involved traffic deaths increased by 150 percent. During this time, the number of deceased drivers tested for drugs increased by 60 percent.
Also, police officials note, any law enforcement officer can arrest a driver suspected of DUI.
Impaired driving is the leading cause of traffic deaths in Washington. Last year, impaired drivers contributed to the deaths of nearly half of the 522 people who died on Washington’s roadways. The 233 impaired driver-involved deaths in 2008 represent a decrease of 40 fatalities compared to the previous five-year average.
Nationally, there were almost 13,000 people killed by impaired drivers during 2007. Those preventable deaths represent an average of one person being killed every 40 minutes in the United States.
Additional information is available from Washington Traffic Safety Commission, visit www.wtsc.wa.gov
