Until your car has the technology to stop you from driving drunk, it’s on you, SC
Plenty of South Carolina police departments offer ride-along programs designed to show civilians a few hours in the life of law enforcement.
There’s one aspect of the job, however, ride along participants are unlikely to see.
“If we could have every South Carolinian drive down that driveway, walk up those steps, and see the look on their faces (when we deliver the news that someone has died), we’d see a decrease (in drunk driving fatalities), I’m sure,” said Master Trooper David Jones.
“The reaction on their faces when we deliver the news, that’s the image that stays with me,” said Jones, who after 16 years as a trooper, still finds the task a painful part of his job.
Jones and many of his fellow officers have made that drive and walked up those steps countless times, and will likely do so a few more times before 2021 comes to an end.
According to the latest statistics from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the Palmetto State continues to rank among the states with the highest number of drunk driving fatalities despite having only the 23rd highest population among the 50 states.
Jones noted that there’s no magic time of day when such crashes happen.
“We arrest drunk drivers every hour of the day,” he said, adding that is especially troubling in 2021 given the availability of ride sharing services and ongoing public information campaigns.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Steven Burritt, executive director of the MADD South Carolina organization.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was founded in 1980 and any child of that decade recalls MADD’s ad campaigns and student chapters.
Burritt said the group has seen drunk driving deaths decline significantly since its founding, but now cases seem to have reached a plateau with cases even increasing from previous years in 2020.
COVID-19 kept a lot of people off the road initially, but now “it seems everybody forgot how to drive,” Burritt said. “We are dangerously close to having the most traffic fatalities ever in South Carolina.”
But Burritt notes that there are some positives on the horizon.
The infrastructure package signed into law by President Joe Biden includes a provision that requires automakers to include technology that would prevent drunken drivers from starting their engines.
According to the Associated Press, “Under the legislation, monitoring systems to stop intoxicated drivers would roll out in all new vehicles as early as 2026, after the Transportation Department assesses the best form of technology to install in millions of vehicles and automakers are given time to comply.”
Burritt said the legislation was a win for the organization in its ongoing battle to curb drunk driving.
“It would be our biggest policy victory,” Burritt said, noting that cars with such systems are already on the road in Europe.
Burritt is also focused on legislation that would make life harder for South Carolinians who refuse a Breathalyzer by requiring they have an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicles before they would be able to get a temporary drivers’ license. That’s significant in a state where 41% of drivers refuse to take such tests during traffic stops.
“Thirty-four states have already done this,” Burritt said, “It does change behavior. It does prevent crashes.”
But neither the new technology nor the legislation will come soon enough as millions of South Carolinians head out on the highways and back roads on their way to Christmas and New Year’s celebrations in the next few days.
So what do we do in the meantime?
We make a concerted effort to stop our friends, family members, acquaintances and even complete strangers from getting behind the wheel when we recognize they may be impaired.
The state has once again launched its sober or slammer campaign to deter drunk driving.
If that’s not enough, picture taking that trip with Jones down the driveway and up the steps to deliver the news.
Better still, imagine being the person opening the door.