‘Hard-Core’ Drinkers Don’t Think and Drive

Just before Thanksgiving, Santa Ana police arrested a man on suspicion of drunken driving. It was his 13th arrest for being drunk behind the wheel and his blood alcohol level was triple the legal limit.

In what officials describe as a disturbing holiday trend, police see a big jump in the number of drunk driving incidents during the holiday season. And with hearty millennium celebrations expected Friday, authorities are on extra alert.

The holiday highway death toll is led by a small group of so-called hard-core drinkers, with blood alcohol levels well above the 0.08% legal limit. The “hard-core” designation comes from the Century Council, a national drunk driving awareness group that is funded by distillers.

Drinkers with a blood alcohol level of 0.15% or more represent about 1% of those on the road but account for 50% of all fatal accidents, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Police said that these heavy drinkers are also the most likely to be repeat offenders.

Santa Ana Police Officer Greg Meciha has arrested about 1,300 drunk drivers over the last five years. He keeps a personal record of blood alcohol levels and says the average blood alcohol level among those he’s arrested in Santa Ana is 0.17%, nearly twice the legal limit. He also reports that about a third of those arrested have prior DUI convictions.

” 1/8’Hard-core’ drunk drivers 3/8 don’t care. They absolutely don’t care,” Meciha said. “And the way our laws work you need four convictions in seven years to make it a felony and have them do prison time.”

Monthlong Campaign Focuses on Awareness

Local police departments along with the Century Council have begun a monthlong campaign to raise awareness about accidents caused by extremely drunk drivers.

Though DUI fatalities across the nation have dropped by a third in the last decade, the Century Council reports that fatalities involving “hard-core” drunk drivers have dropped only 10%.

Marion Blakey, who is the council’s awareness project coordinator and a former administrator of the NHTSA, said one way to improve the situation is press judges to hand out extra punishment to defendants with high blood alcohol levels.

There has also been a push in some states for new legislation that would require mandatory jail time, vehicle impounding and other punishments for “hard-core” drunk drivers.

Santa Ana police officer Meciha said there are few ways to stop these extremely drunk drivers, “not until the laws get changed or until they kill somebody.”

The next few days are among the busiest of the year for cops assigned to the drunk driving detail. A DUI checkpoint in Costa Mesa last weekend, for example, netted eight suspected drunk drivers.

Last Christmas, 48% of the 364 traffic fatalities nationwide were alcohol-related, according to the NHTSA; last New Year’s Day, 68% of the 142 fatalities were alcohol-related related as well.

In Orange County, 44 people were killed in drunk driving accidents in 1998.

Reidel Post, director of the Orange County Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, agreed with Meciha that stiffer punishments are needed for extremely drunk drivers.

“It’s not by lecturing them,” she said. “These hard-core drivers need to see the they are going to do serious jail time.”

Post, however, warned that society needs to focus on all types of drunk driving.

“Sometimes we forget that impairment begins with the first drink,” she said. “And even though the individuals who comprise that 1% are causing half the 1/8fatal 3/8 accidents, I’m not going to care about that too much if my daughter is killed by a driver that has a 0.09 or a 0.15 blood alcohol level.”

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Driving Drunk

Drunk driving arrests in the county dipped a slight 1% from 1997 to 1998. The number of victims has dropped nearly 58% over the last 10 years.

DUI Arrests by Agency

Anaheim 1998: 892

1997: 891

Brea/Yorba Linda

1998: 307

1997: 343

Buena Park

1998: 244

1997: 283

CHP

1998: 4,824

1997: 4,568

Costa Mesa

1998: 701

1997: 1,055

CSU Fullerton

1998: 24

1997: 16

Cypress

1998: 143

1997: 177

Dana Point

1998: 92

1997: 97

Fountain Valley

1998: 158

1997: 166

Fullerton

1998: 402

1997: 385

Garden Grove

1998: 424

1997: 465

Huntington Beach

1998: 674

1997: 627

Irvine

1998: 401

1997: 641

Laguna Beach

1998: 356

1997: 392

Laguna Hills

1998: 98

1997: 63

Laguna Niguel

1998: 109

1997: 95

La Habra

1998: 247

1997: 275

Lake Forest

1998: 109

1997: 99

La Palma

1998: 68

1997: 65

Los Alamtios

1998: 94

1997: 61

Mission Viejo

1998: 163

1997: 157

Newport Beach

1998: 452

1997: 337

Orange

1998: 577

1997: 559

Placentia

1998: 190

1997: 142

San Clemente

1998: 111

1997: 86

San Juan Capistrano

1998: 60

1997: 65

Santa Ana

1998: 1,047

1997: 1,439

Seal Beach

1998: 183

1997: 228

Sheriff-Unincorporated

1998: 203

1997: 181

Stanton

1998: 342

1997: 254

Tustin

1998: 256

1997: 255

U.C. Irvine

1998: 92

1997: 75

Villa Park

1998: 6

1997: 5

Westminster

1998: 257

1997: 293

Total County

1998: 14,686

1997: 14,856

Source: Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Orange County Chapter

Orange County DUI Victims

‘87: 5,981

‘98: 2,087