Teaching Culpeper teens the dangers of underage drinking and driving

A local teenager is dead after a single-vehicle crash on Clover Hill Road recently, a grim reminder about the risks facing young drivers.  The recent tragedy was attributed to excess speed, but other factors are often to blame for teen crash deaths: drinking, distraction, or simply lack of experience.

Emergency workers in Culpeper are doing their part to educate local teens about the risks of drinking and driving.  Not only do they want to deter teens from drinking underage, but they also want to make sure they do not drive while intoxicated. 

On April 16 the Culpeper County High School hosted a demonstration sponsored by Youth of Virginia Speak Out.  The event was timed to happen just before the school’s prom that weekend – an event that often leads to underage drinking.  A number of agencies participated in the event, including the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police, the Culpeper Office of Emergency Services, the Culpeper Joint Communications, and fire and rescue teams.

Two damaged cars were set up in the school’s parking lot, and students were able to play the parts of crash victims.  Students observing the demonstration learned how emergency personnel respond to car crash scenes, and saw how EMS workers provide medical treatment victims and how students who are believed to be intoxicated are taken into police custody.

Hopefully some lives were saved by the demonstration.  No teen deserves to die because of a poor choice to drink and drive, and no family deserves to lose a child in such a terrible way.

What are drunk drivers doing when they cause an accident?

Drunk drivers are a menace on Virginia roads, taking innocent lives and injuries thousands of Virginians every year.  Alcohol-related crashes accounted for 7.6 percent of all crashes in Virginia last year, killing 354 people and hurting 7,000.

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) publishes their Virginia Traffic Crash Facts every year, and the data for 2008 includes information on what drunk driver’s cars were doing when they caused an accident.

What were drunk driver’s cars doing when they crashed?

1. Going straight: 4,159 vehicles (40.6%)
2. Running of the road: 3,927 (38.4%)
3. Turning left: 616 (6.0%)
4. Turning right: 399 (3.9%)
5. Other: 370 (3.6%)
6. Changing lanes: 244 (2.4%)
7. Slowing or stopping: 151 (1.5%)
8. Stopped in traffic lanes: 122 (1.2%)
9. Backing up: 119 (1.2%)
10. Passing another vehicle: 66 (0.6%)
11. Making a U-turn: 59 (0.6%)

Regardless of how an accident happens, drivers who choose to get behind the wheel after having too much to drink deserve to face justice for their actions.  No innocent victim should be hurt or killed because another person made a negligent decision.

Read more about drunk drivers, the laws that try to control them, and what Virginia is doing to curb DUI accidents in our law library.

Are you ready for Checkpoint Strikeforce?

Checkpoint Strikeforce is a multi-state law-enforcement initiative to get drunk drivers off the road.  Last year, police in Delaware, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia stopped over 400,000 drivers at sobriety checkpoints.

Checkpoint Strikeforce spreads its message with high-visibility sobriety checkpoints combined with paid advertising.  The goal is to educate the public about the dangers of drinking and driving – and the consequences.

Every year this initiative takes place around Labor Day.  This year Checkpoint Strikeforce is running from August 21 through Labor Day.

Has the program been successful?  Police like sobriety checkpoints because they stop impaired drivers and get them off the road before they can hurt themselves or somebody else.  Many states use a “zero-tolerance” approach and arrest all drivers found with a BAC above the legal limit of 0.08.

Checkpoints work because not only are people caught when they drink and drive, but they are also deterred from getting behind the wheel if they know that there’s a chance they’ll be stopped.  According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, alcohol-related traffic deaths can be cut down by up to 20 percent with sobriety checkpoints.

As an added bonus, these checkpoints can also nab other law-breakers, including wanted felons and fugitives, drivers with suspended licenses, and people not using restraints (including car seats) correctly.

Did a Virginia teen get away with murder – twice?

When a teenager is involved in a serious alcohol-related accident, we like to think that it can be a life changing event that causes them to reevaluate their priorities and behavior.  For some young people, being involved in a crash after drinking and driving can lead to a dramatic change.

Take the example of Sarah Panzau, who in 2003 was seriously injured and believed dead after a car accident in which she was found to have four times the legal blood alcohol content.  Now 27, Ms. Panzau travels the country speaking to teenagers about the dangers of drinking and driving.  Fortunately for Panzau, she was the only one injured in her accident; she does not have to carry the burden of having taken another life.

The same cannot be said for Arkee Hall, who in 2002 was found guilty in juvenile court of improper driving in a Stafford county accident that killed Dwayne Beach Jr.  Hall did not stop at one auto death; in 2004 he was convicted of manslaughter after he lost control of his truck and his passenger, Jeremiah Poyck, was killed in the resulting crash.

Two accidents, both related to Hall’s bad driving.  Is that the end for Hall?  Did he change his ways?  Was the Virginia justice system able to keep him from harming anyone else?  No.  Instead, the grandmother of his first victim saw Hall’s name not long ago on a list of DUI arrests in Spotsylvania County.  In addition, last month Hall was charged with a DUI in Florida.

Hall’s DUIs are especially concerning because after his second fatal accident a judge ruled that he was not allowed to drive for 20 years.  Clearly having the blood of two innocent victims on his hands is not enough to keep Hall from engaging in seriously dangerous behavior.  And where is the Virginia justice system here?  Two deaths and at least two DUIs – and Hall is free, basically getting away with murder.  That isn’t justice, it’s criminal.

Looking forward to your Superbowl party? Don't become a dangerous driver!

What do you think of when you imagine a Superbowl party?  A giant high-definition TV, a room full of your best friends, mountains of delicious snacks, and perhaps a whole lot of beer.  Toasting wins and losses during football’s fantastic season finale is an annual event for many people, but drinking and driving should never be a part of the festivities.  Nobody wants to cap off a day of fun and celebration with a serious auto accident or a DUI conviction.

Accidents, death, and jail are usually pretty far from everyone’s mind, but this is a good time to remind partygoers that Superbowl Sunday is one of the deadliest days of the year.  Nationwide, 48% of traffic fatalities on this fateful day are DUI related.

So the message is clear – don’t drink and drive.  Unfortunately it’s a message we hear so often that it is easy to ignore, but major events like the Superbowl are an important time to remind area residents that alcohol and automobiles don’t mix.  This year, Culpeper police are trying to do just that.

Local police are using the slogan, “real fans don’t let fans drive drunk” to encourage people to look out not only for themselves, but for their friends as well.  In addition, Culpeper Town Police want to remind fans that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs can result in jail, a loss of driving privileges, and hefty fines.

So if you’re hosting or attending a Superbowl party this year, keep these hints in mind:

• Designate a sober driver
• If you don’t have a designated driver, ask a sober friend to drive you home
• If you can’t get a sober ride home, stay at the party until you sober up – better yet, spend the night if you can.
• Enjoy and provide non-alcoholic beverages

If you’re unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident with a drunk driver, then you should speak with an attorney.  Contact the experienced Virginia auto accident attorneys Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas, LLP at (800) 741-1012 for Culpeper or (888) 907-2631 for Warrenton today.

Two drunk drivers slam into construction equipment, kill worker

A Roanoke County father of two was killed last week when not one but two drunk drivers slammed into a backhoe near which the worker was standing.  The first driver pinned the man between her vehicle the backhoe and a dump-truck, and authorities believe that when the second driver slammed into the first driver’s vehicle the man was killed.

Both drivers had recently left a downtown Roanoke bar, and were charged with involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence.  Further investigation found that both drivers had been asked to leave the bar where they were drinking as they

This accident is a somber reminder of two important issues facing Virginians:  first, the dangers posed to construction workers on Virginia’s roadways, and second, the dangers that drinking and driving poses to the community.

Construction workers toil away on our roads, homes, and buildings, and every day they face so many dangers on the job.  Whenever we hear about accidents we want to know – was the worker properly protected and had they been given the right safety equipment?  Were they properly trained?  No worker should ever lose his or her life in a construction accident, but sadly this happens every day.

Of even greater concern are the two drivers who not only chose to get into their cars after a night of drinking but whose careless actions took the life of a father of two.  With a drunk driving death happening every 30 seconds on our nation’s roadways, many victims and advocacy groups are clamoring for harsher penalties for drunk drivers.  You can read more about what’s being done by the federal government and the State of Virginia in our library article, “Impaired Driving – What Can Be Done?”

Has your life been impacted by a drunk driver?  Or, do you have personal experience with a construction site accident or injury?  We’d like to hear from you.  Please leave us a comment or contact us today.

Back road drunks – beware!

There’s a little secret among drivers who drink – if you’ve had a few too many, make sure you take as many back roads home as possible.  After all, everyone knows that the police only set up sobriety checkpoints on major roadways – they rarely if ever police rural roads and back streets.

Well, that little secret isn’t such a secret.  Law enforcement officials have long known that intoxicated drivers try to sneak around on rural roads to avoid being caught, but now they’re doing something about it.  The 2008 Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign just kicked off, and this year will focus on policing those very rural and back roads that are so appealing to drunk drivers.

Since over half of all traffic fatalities occur on rural roads, Governor Tim Kaine and law enforcement officials hope that this latest crackdown will save lives and keep intoxicated drivers off the road.  Virginians can expect to find at least one sobriety checkpoint or saturation patrol each week throughout each region for the remainder of 2008.

You can read more about Checkpoint Strikeforce and other Virginia DUI resources at the state’s “Smart, Safe, and Sober” website and in our law library article, “Virginia to Crack Down on Drunk Driving”.

Getting high-risk drunk drivers off the road

Yet again the statistics have shown us the ugly truth.  Those drivers who choose to get behind the wheel of a car after having had too much to drink – for the second, third, or more times – are more likely to kill themselves or somebody else in a fatal car crash.  Not only that, but drivers who may have no prior convictions but somehow think it is okay to drive with a BAC over 0.15 are also more likely to kill themselves or somebody else in an accident.

While alcohol-related traffic deaths may be down overall in the United States according to recent numbers from the NHTSA, the number of deaths from these so-called “high-risk” drivers has gone up.  This small subset of problem drivers seems impervious to increased sobriety checkpoints, advertising campaigns directed against DUI / DWI, and tightened drunk driving laws.  What makes these drivers think they are above and beyond the law?

The only option seems to target this group and crack down – hard.  You can read more about the recent NHTSA report and ideas from MADD for cutting down on the number of high-risk drivers on the road in our law library article “The Problem of High-Risk Drunk Drivers in Fatal Crashes”.  You can also read about how Virginia is cracking down on drunk driving in our article “Virginia to Crack Down on Drunk Driving” and the impact of lowering the teen drinking age in “How Would Lowering the Drinking Age Affect Teen Drivers?”

The Effect of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws and Drunk Driving Accidents

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act established the minimum legal drinking age at 21.  Before the law was signed in 1984, the minimum legal drinking age ranged from 18 to 21 among the states.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported that laws relating to the minimum legal drinking age have contributed to saving more than 900 lives each year. 

Before the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was created, each state had its own law.  In some states, the drinking age was set to 18 or 19, while other states set the minimum age to 21.  Researchers were able to easily identify the impact that the various minimum drinking ages had on accidents.  For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of drunk driving accidents increased dramatically in states that had lower minimum age requirements.  Research has also shown that from 1982 to 1998, the number of alcohol-related crashes has declined by 59 percent. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has stated that the minimum legal drinking age has played a major role in reducing youth drinking and driving.  These laws seem to cut down on youth drinking and encourage young adults to separate drinking from driving.  However, not everyone agrees with this logic.

There have been many critics of minimum legal drinking age laws over the years.  Some of the criticisms have included the following arguments:

• “Nineteen- and twenty-year-olds are drinking anyway. If we legalize it, at least they’ll be drinking in a controlled setting.”
• “Making it illegal to drink until 21 just increases the desire for the ‘forbidden fruit’. When teens turn 21, they’ll drink even more.”
• “The Federal Government is exerting too much authority over the States. The Federal law encouraging States to set the legal drinking age at 21, by withholding highway funds from States that do not do so, is just one example of this.”

Most research has shown these arguments to be unfounded.  If you or someone you love has been injured in a drunk driving accident, contact Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas, LLP at 888-907-2631 for our Warrenton office or 800-741-1012 for our Culpeper office.  We know how devastating these accidents can be and we will do everything possible to make sure you receive the compensation you deserve.

The article, Drunk Driving Accidents and Minimum Legal Drinking Age, has more information on this subject.