November 14, 2000

DUIs in Iowa decrease,
drunk driving education continues

Frances Starkey
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Over the past five years, Iowa has followed the national trend toward fewer drunk driving arrests and alcohol-related accidents.

"Over the past five years the numbers of DUIs have been going down [in Iowa]," said Robert Hansen, sergeant for the Iowa State Highway Patrol, "but they're something we're not going to get away from. So we have to have a strategies to combat it."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Department of Safety have a state rating system for drunk driving prevention. Iowa received a B- last year.

"We're one of the better performing states," said Bill Shackelford, president of the Polk County chapter of MADD. "A state's rating depends on several factors: How many MADD chapters a state has, what legislation is being discussed and how supportive the governor is of drunk driving legislation. Iowa has a good, supportive governor and Department of Safety. We're doing well--better than average--but obviously our objective is an A. We're doing B- work, we could do better."

Nationally, between 1990-1997, the number of drunk driving arrests has decreased by 18 percent. Five years ago, Hansen said the Iowa Highway Patrol made 21,000 DUI or DWI arrests, but in 1999 that number decreased to 13,000.

"I think nationally decreasing DUI arrests are a trend," Hansen said. "We have fewer alcohol-related accidents, but the correlation between decreasing alcohol-related accidents and decreasing DUIs is not as severe."

According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of 449 traffic fatalities in Iowa in 1998, 36.4 percent were alcohol-related with 164 fatalities. In Iowa in 1999, 132 of the total traffic fatalities were alcohol-related. This decrease is similar to the nation. In 1980, when the first MADD chapter began, there were 29,275 alcohol-related traffic fatalities nationally. Last year, of all the traffic fatalities, 15,786 were alcohol-related.
"Drunk driving occurrences are fairly constant," Hansen said, "but alcohol-related accidents and fatalities we see more in the warmer periods of the year."

Mainly, Iowa is trying to increase public education and awareness about the effects of drinking and driving to decrease the number of drunk driving occurrences. And for the most part, Hansen said, the approach seems to be helping.

"I don't think there's one thing you can point to that's caused the decrease," Hansen said, "but a few years ago there was a big push to increase public education and awareness and that certainly has had an effect. Nowadays, almost everyone knows at least someone who's been involved in or had some experience with drunk driving. Those experiences are something that make people not want to do it themselves."

Shackelford agreed. He said drunk driving prevention is a combination of two factors. "It's hard to say what's the greatest deterrent," Shackelford said. "It's really a combination of two things: laws and public awareness. As public awareness goes up, the penalty will, too, and the number of occurrences will go down."

MADD's red ribbon campaign, candlelight vigils and public speaking are only a few of the things the group has done to try to prevent drunk driving, especially for people between the ages of 15 and 24 who statistically have been hit the hardest by drunk driving, both as drivers and as passengers.

Since public education and awareness haven't been enough to end drunk driving, Hansen said the Iowa Highway Patrol supports Iowa legislation to lower the legal blood-alcohol level to .08. But Hansen said, and Shackelford agreed, that even that might not be enough.

"The average male weighs 170 pounds and has to have four drinks to have a .08 blood alcohol level," Hansen said. "That's not really social drinking. Mostly, I think legislation combined with education and enforcing the law will drive drunk driving numbers down."

The average woman can have three drinks before her blood-alcohol level will reach .08, Hansen said. Right now, only 20 states have made the legal blood-alcohol level .08 or lower. All other 30 states' legal level is .1. Currently, a person's license is revoked for 180 days for his or her first drunk driving offense. The penalty gets more severe after every subsequent offense. By the third offense, the person faces misdemeanor charges and by the fourth offense, a felony.