Drive sober or get pulled over campaign increases arrests

Warm weather, St. Patrick’s Day, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and a host of other factors have all contributed to a statewide crackdown on drunk driving, said Ryan Klitzsch, traffic safety director for the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

Police officers will be looking for impaired or aggressive motorists during March’s “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign. Individuals with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher will be prosecuted. The crackdown is part of a greater strategy to lower the number of driving fatalities.

“Maybe it’s the sense of team, maybe it’s the sense of a collective community, but you’re all at the bar, and suddenly you’ve had more drinks than you thought you would,” Klitzsch said.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a third of all motor accidents are alcohol related.

“Last year, during the blitz, 633 DUI arrests were made in the state,” Klitzsch said. “If you think of it that way, that’s 633 potential lives that were saved.”

Klitzsch said these accidents are “powerful and traumatic” for him to witness. The hardest part is seeing the friends and families of victims affected and knowing these crashes were completely preventable, Klitzsch said.

“You see the headlines when crashes like this do occur, especially in small communities where everyone knows everyone, and it’s so sad,” Klitzsch said. “Someone’s out driving and thinking, ‘I can get there, I can get there,’ but they need to know this issue affects so much more than just them.”

Sobriety checkpoints and an increased number of police officers will saturate areas generally known to have alcohol-related crashes as part of the blitz. Last year, 80 people between the ages of 21 and 24 were involved in alcohol-related crashes in Monroe County. This age group reported the highest number of impaired drivers.

This March there have already been more than 2,000 collisions in Indiana, according to the Automated Reporting Information Exchange System, a statewide accident database.

Randall Frykberg, director of IU’s Student Legal Services, said he is concerned by the increased number of drunk-driving cases he has seen and by an individual’s level of intoxication.

“What scares me about the students I have seen is the level of drunkenness of people who are getting DUI’s,” Frykberg said. “The people I am seeing are way beyond buzz driving and are almost falling down driving.”

In 2011, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled individuals can still be arrested for public intoxication even if they have a sober driver. Frykberg said this law is more focused on the “financial incentive for busting people on alcoholic charges,” rather than lowering the number of driving fatalities.

Because alcohol arrests can affect student’s employment and admission to graduate school, students are often willing to apply for pre-trial diversion, Frykberg said. This program requires individuals to perform community service and pay increased court, clerk and program fees to avoid prosecution. The financial gain can serve as a motivator for police officers to arrest, Frykberg said. 

“Students have always done a fairly good job in knowing that they are going to drink, sometimes illegally, and have a responsible way home,” Frykberg said. “But increased alcohol laws can cause students to throw up their hands and say, ‘What is the point in being responsible? The police just want to bust us anyway.’”

Klitzsch advised individuals to walk, ride a bike or “stay on a friend’s couch” if they are too drunk to drive.

“A $25 cab ride is more than worth it,” Klitzsch said. “On average, it’s over $10,000 in fines and legal fees if you’re picked up.”

Since IU will likely be in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year, Klitzsch advised people to be particularly careful driving this month.

“Individuals need to know if they are speeding, honking aggressively or passing people on the right-hand lane, they will be arrested,” he said.