DWI deaths called 'pandemic' in Houston

Houston, TX

Pandemic - pan·dem·ic (pān-děm'ĭk)
(adj.)

Etimology. 1666, from Gk. pandemos "pertaining to all people," from pan- "all" + demos "people". Modeled on epidemic. The noun is first recorded 1853, from the adj.

Definition. 1) (adj.) disease occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population ; 2) (n.) a widespread epidemic affecting a whole people or a number of countries; everywhere epidemic.

plague
  [pleyg] noun, verb, plagued, pla⋅guing.
–noun
1. an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence.
2. an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas. Compare bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague.
3. any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, esp. one regarded as a direct punishment by God: a plague of war and desolation.
4. any cause of trouble, annoyance, or vexation: Uninvited guests are a plague.
–verb (used with object)
5. to trouble, annoy, or torment in any manner: The question of his future plagues him with doubt.
6. to annoy, bother, or pester: Ants plagued the picnickers.
7. to smite with a plague, pestilence, death, etc.; scourge: those whom the gods had plagued.
8. to infect with a plague; cause an epidemic in or among: diseases that still plague the natives of Ethiopia.
9. to afflict with any evil: He was plagued by allergies all his life.
Origin: 1350–1400; ME plage < L plāga stripe, wound, LL: pestilence

Related forms: plaguer, noun

District Attorney Pat Lykos says the "DWI problem" in Harris County is a "pandemic plague."

I say Pat needs to pull his head out of his ?*#?! and push his face into a dictionary.

Harris County has the highest rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths among the nation’s most populous counties, researchers say, and a series of horrific crashes blamed on drunken drivers in recent days seems to back the claim.

Experts agree the county’s high DWI fatality rate is partly a byproduct of limited public transportation for the region’s 3.9 million residents and an urban sprawl leading them to drive many miles. Stepped-up enforcement by more officers patrolling the roadways at peak times for drunken driving offenses, meanwhile, keeps the county jail full of DWI suspects. Adding to the deadly mix is a stubborn reluctance to rely on designated drivers, or cabs and other services that keep the intoxicated from driving.

“We don’t make our plans before we drink, we try to figure out how we’re going to deal with it after we start drinking — that’s our biggest problem,” said officer Paul Lassalle, with the Houston Police Department’s DWI task force.

District Attorney Pat Lykos, citing around 10,000 driving while intoxicated cases filed each year, has called the county’s DWI problem a “pandemic plague.”

The most recent victims of crashes that authorities have blamed on intoxicated drivers include: a housewife from The Woodlands whose pickup was forced off a Hardy Toll Road overpass, a Pakistani immigrant killed while helping a stranded motorist on the Southwest Freeway, a volunteer firefighter from Cy-Fair left legless after being hit in an auto parts store parking lot, and a veteran Houston police officer critically injured while directing traffic around a crash on the Southwest Freeway.

Lykos hopes to lower DWI rates by offering first-time offenders a pretrial probation term that avoids a conviction, in hopes of getting more into treatment. In recent years, most of those charged with drunken driving in Harris County have pleaded guilty, served jail time and paid a fine, rather than be placed on supervised probation where alcohol education and treatment assessment is mandatory. Probation for DWI fell from 4,700 cases in 2000 to 2,150 in 2007, according to the district attorney’s office.
Not really that bad?

Lykos announced the new DWI policy at a recent meeting of the Houston/Harris County Office of Drug Policy, which released a report noting the county has been designated the worst in the nation for alcohol-related fatalities per capita. And about 60 percent of the county’s traffic fatalities are alcohol-related, twice the national average, the report states.

Hope Rangel, head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s Houston-area chapter, said those who drink any amount of alcohol should not drive.

“It’s about choice. We don’t have enough folks who are really being cognizant about what their responsibility as a driver is when they get behind the wheel of a car,” Rangel said.

But some question that worst county designation, arguing the statistics are manipulated to make a serious problem appear worse.

“I’m not saying there are no intoxicated drivers; clearly there are. But I don’t think it’s as bad as statistics make it appear,” said attorney JoAnne Musick, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. “As far as I’ve been able to tell, the statistics don’t differentiate between those that are DWIs and those that are not.”
Statistics can differ

Finding the exact number of DWI fatalities in Harris County can be confusing.

The city-county report, citing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other sources, lists 174 fatalities in 2006 involving drivers who were legally drunk. In contrast, The Texas Department of Transportation lists a significantly lower toll of 145 deaths in 2006 in crashes in which a driver had any measurable amount of alcohol.

Lassalle, with HPD’s DWI task force, provided figures showing the NHTSA ranked Harris County first in per-capita alcohol-related deaths among 10 of the nation’s most populous counties in 2006 based on 232 alcohol-related traffic deaths and 203 traffic deaths in which a driver was legally drunk. Second was Dallas County, followed by Phoenix’s Maricopa County.

“You have a huge population covering a huge territory and they’re doing it all in their own vehicles,” Lassalle said.

Houston’s DWI task force receives about $480,000 a year in grants to pay overtime for officers to catch and process drunken drivers, said task force member Don Egdorf, also HPD’s liaison with the district attorney’s vehicular crimes unit. “I don’t know if there are more drunks on the streets, but there are more officers looking for the drunks so there are more of them getting picked up,” he said.

Troy McKinney, a Houston attorney who specializes in defending DWI cases, said alcohol-related deaths are being “massively overstated” and notes large numbers of DWI cases are eventually dismissed by the courts.

“The realty today is, if you’re drinking and driving and are stopped by police, you’re going to jail whether you’re intoxicated or not. That’s the default,” McKinney said. “The attitude making its way to the government is: People shouldn’t be drinking and driving at all, but it’s not against the law.”

St. Louis DWI Lawyers

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North Carolina's Labor Day Booze It & Lose It campaign begins Friday

Wilmington, NC

The DWI industry sure comes up with some great slogans. One question: Wouldn't the drunk already be driving when they see the brilliant "Booze it & loose it" graphics on the side of the bus?!

Click Here to check other state DWI enforcement slogans

Sheriff deputies across the state are cracking down on impaired drivers over the next two weeks as part of a Labor Day "Booze It & Lose It" campaign.

Checkpoints and saturated patrols will run across North Carolina from August 15 to September 1.

Last year, during the same two-week period, there were more than 500 alcohol-related accidents resulting in 27 fatalities and more than 400 injuries.

During the special Booze It and Lose It blitz on 8-08-08, 454 motorists were cited for DWI. In New Hanover County, out of 17 checkpoints and patrols, 16 people were cited for DWI.

For a complete list of the statistics from the blitz, click here.

Since 1994 the Governor's Highway Safety Program has conducted these campaigns in an effort to deter drinking and driving.

In 2007, more than 500 alcohol related crashes were reported during the two week period.

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Arkansas county has new DWI slogan...

Benton, AR

Check out my 1/1/08 DWI slogans post. Without witty slogans, DWI/DUI enforcement campaigns just aren't nearly as cool. The big brains that came up with the slogan are the same big brains that issued a press release stating the campaign "is geared toward students on spring break" and "will continue through the summer."

In Arkansas, everyday is a holiday and spring break lasts all summer.

Benton County Sheriff's Office deputies and the DWI Task Force are taking part in the "Over the Limit, Under Arrest" program, according to a release from the sheriff's office.

The campaign starts nationally on Friday and Saturday and will include sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols throughout Benton County and will continue through the summer.

The event is to help focus attention on underage drinking and is geared toward students on spring break, the release states.

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New Mexico deploys 500 sexy-talking urinal cakes to combat drunk driving

Rio Rancho, NM

Caption #1: That's not the only thing I have in my hand, sweetheart.

Caption #2: Is this intended to combat drunk driving or to let men in New Mexico know they can't even go to the men's room without a woman telling them what to do?

New Mexico is taking its fight against drunken driving to men's restrooms around the state.

The state has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will deliver a recorded anti-DWI message to bar and restaurant patrons who make one last pit stop before getting behind the wheel.

When a man steps up, the motion-sensitive plastic device says, in a woman's voice that is flirty, then stern:

"Hey, big guy. Having a few drinks?

Think you had one too many?

Then it's time to call a cab or call a sober friend for a ride home.

Remember, your future is in your hand."

Transportation Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said the urinal cakes are a way to reach one group that's a target of state safety campaigns. Men commit about three times as many drunken-driving infractions as women. More >>

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More State DWI / DUI awareness and prevention slogans

South Carolina

"Sober or Slammer"

Minnesota

"One DWI Can Cost You Over $15,000"
"Talk About Your Un-Happy Hour"
"DWI. It's How Your Lawyer Affords Those Nice Suits"
"When The Bartender Says, "Last Call" Make It A Taxi"
"Can You Really Fit That Funeral Into Your Busy Schedule?"
"Don't Rely on Luck or Fate, Now that the Limit is .08"

New Mexico

“You Drink, You Drive, You Lose”

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